“I didn’t,” Ned answered. “It just happened. I bumped against the wall and must have struck the spring. What’s it for, Tom?”
Into the eyes of the young inventor shone a new and hopeful light.
“I don’t know what its original use was,” he said slowly. “But for us it offers a way of escape. Come on, Ned! We’ll light out while those fellows are busy down at the boat. Grab up some food and come on.”
Tom began stuffing some bread and meat into his pockets after hastily dressing, which was a short operation, as the young men had not removed all of their clothes the night before. Then Tom took another look through the window.
“They’re still tinkering over the motor,” he reported. “It’s now or never, Ned! This storm came just at the right time. Come on!”
“But we don’t know where that secret staircase leads,” objected Ned Newton as he followed his chum’s example about the food.
“And it doesn’t make much difference, either. It leads out of this room. That’s all we have to know now. I think it must have been put in to allow the secret removal of smuggled or stolen goods—possibly bootleg liquor. Probably the stairway ends in one of the rooms below. But as those three scoundrels are out of the way we can leave.”
“Maybe we’ll be trapped at the bottom, Tom. There must be a door there, too.”
“Probably there is; but it’s likely to be a sliding, secret door, and, consequently, won’t be very strong. We can burst it out, maybe. Anyhow it’s worth trying. Come on!”
Then, as the storm rose to new heights of fury, the two prisoners slipped into the secret opening and began descending the dark stairs on their way to escape.