“Big storm,” Tom answered. He jumped out of bed and walked to the window. A moment later he uttered an exclamation.
“What’s doing?” asked Ned, stretching lazily.
“Those three fellows are down on the shore doing something to their motorboat,” reported Tom. “Looks as if it had been damaged in the storm, which is a fierce one, let me tell you. They seem to be making repairs.”
“Maybe they’re going away and leave us alone,” suggested Ned.
“They may be going away,” assented Tom. “But they won’t leave us, I’m thinking. They’ll take us with them. But something evidently has happened.”
In his eagerness to see what was going on at the shore of the lake within view of the barred window, Ned jumped out of bed. In doing so he overbalanced himself and in order not to fall he had to do a hop, skip and a jump across the room. He brought up hard against the opposite wall, fairly jarring the place. As he stopped his somewhat mad and erratic career he uttered a cry.
“Hurt yourself?” asked Tom anxiously.
“No! But look! Man dear, look!”
Ned’s voice was excited, and no wonder! It was evident that in his collision against the wall he had struck a hidden spring which operated the mechanism of a secret sliding door. For there, before the eyes of the two captives, was an opening, large enough for them to pass through, in a stooping position, and leading to the top of a flight of stairs.
“A secret door!” cried Tom. “How’d you discover it?”