“Miss Hallett is certainly right,” said Tuckerman. “There may be some cobwebs, too, up under the ceiling. Do you mean the cobwebs, Ben?”
“There are lots of more interesting things here,” said Sarah, looking around. “There’s that lovely green lacquered temple.”
“Don’t joke with the magician, Sally,” David admonished her. “He wants you to look at those pegs.”
“No, that particular wall is the most interesting thing in this attic,” Ben declared stoutly. “I think it’s the most interesting thing in the house.”
They all looked where he pointed, but none of them caught what he was driving at.
“Why, Professor Tuckerman,” said Ben, “I thought you were a better observer.”
“Well, I don’t see anything but the pegs and some rather dingy wallpaper,” Tuckerman confessed.
“Ah, now you’re talking! You do see the wallpaper, do you?” Ben continued.
“Of course,” said Tuckerman. “It’s the pictured kind, like that in the rooms downstairs.”
“Oh, no, it’s not,” exclaimed Ben. “There’s not another piece like that in Cotterell Hall.”