“You’ve got it!” said Carmichael. “But why, why?” He and Gordon both went to the spot where the photograph had rested on the cornice two nights before. There was a crack near it, through which it might be possible for a man standing in the dark beyond to keep a watch on the inside of the room, but this crack seemed to hold no further secret. It was Gordon who eventually, fingering the little mouldings on the lower side of the cornice, found one which pushed upwards, acting as a sort of latch. A little tug at the remaining mouldings made the panel turn sideways and disclose a triangular opening of a few inches across, through which Reeves’ vociferous rendering of “Annie Laurie” burst into the stillness of the priests’ hiding-place.
Chapter XIII.
The Man in the Passage
“Well,” said Gordon, “what do we do next?”
“The first thing,” said Carmichael, “is to shut up this hole again exactly as it was. The next thing is to discuss what we do next. And, Reeves, I think it might be best if you went on playing for a little.”
“If music be the food of detection,” agreed Gordon, “play on. Give us excess of it, that surfeiting the mysterious gentleman behind the panelling may sicken, and so die. Well, he can’t have come through that hole, can he?”
“No,” said Carmichael, “but there’s certain to be another catch just inside which will open the secret door. You see, that hole is obviously for a man to put his arm through. And as the arm-hole opens from this side, the catch of the door will clearly open from the other. But, just personally, I don’t very much want to open that door without, considering first what we’re going to find on the other side. Is the man armed, for example? Is there likely to be another opening he can escape through? I confess to an aversion from taking any risks.”
“If he came here straight from the railway,” said Reeves from the piano, “he wouldn’t be likely to have any fire-arms with him.”
“But you forget,” said Gordon, “he must have an accomplice outside; somebody who brings him food—why not weapons too?”
“It’s a conceivable plan,” said Carmichael, “to keep a look-out and catch this confederate of his. Because the confederate presumably uses some other entrance, and if we found that . . .”
“We could wait at that end, and let Reeves go on playing the piano to him; he couldn’t stick it much longer. No, that’s all very well, but I really think we ought to do something at once, before this man sees that there’s something up, and possibly makes a bolt for it. I know the direct method sounds silly, but I propose that we should go in and take a look round. I don’t mind going first.”