“Well!” Jean exclaimed.
“The end,” muttered Johnny.
“Now,” said Roderick in a relieved tone, “I hope we may go back to the sunlight. I don’t like these beastly vampire bats. I’ve been told they can kill an ox by sucking his blood. They’ve been known to drive the entire population of a village from their homes. What would you do if one of the bally rascals made a grab at your throat?”
“Take him by the ear and give a good sound scolding,” said Johnny.
“Hold on a bit,” he said as Roderick started back, “let’s have a look.”
He began flashing his torch from floor to ceiling, from corner to corner of the dungeon-like place.
“Not an opening,” he sighed. “Not a suggestion of an—wait! How does it happen that this stone at the end is fully a yard square, while all the rest of the wall is made up of small rocks?”
Taking a heavy cane which Roderick had insisted upon bringing into the place, he struck the broad stone a resounding blow. At once the place was alive with echoes and whirring wings.
“Sounds hollow,” he muttered.
He pressed the end of the stick against the top of the stone and gave it a shove. To their surprise the stone, which to all appearances was a door, dropped slowly and noiselessly downward until it formed a sort of threshold over which they who dared might walk.