Megales reached up and put his weight on a rope suspended from the roof. Slowly the solid masonry swung on a pivot, leaving room on either side for a person to squeeze through. The governor found it a tight fit, as did also Gabilonda.
“I was more slender last time I passed through there. It has been several years since then,” said the governor, giving his daughter a hand to assist her through.
They found themselves in a small chamber fitted up as a living room in a simple way. There were three plain chairs, a bed, a table, and a dresser, as well as a cooking stove.
“This must be close to the prison. We have been coming in that direction all the time. It is strange that it could be so near and I not know of it,” said the warden, looking around curiously.
Megales smiled. “I am the only person alive that knew of the existence of this room or of the secret passage until half an hour ago. I had it built a few years since by Yaquis when I was warden of the prison. The other end, the one opening from the palace, I had finished after I became governor.”
“But surely the men who built it know of its existence.”
Again Megales smiled. “I thought you knew me better, Carlo. The Yaquis who built this were condemned raiders. I postponed their execution a few months while they were working on this. It was a convenience both to them and to me.”
“And is also a convenience to me,” smiled Carlo, who was beginning to recover from his terror.
“But I don’t quite understand yet how we are to get out of here except by going back the way we came,” said Gabilonda.
“Which for some of us might prove a dangerously unhealthy journey. True, colonel, and therefore one to be avoided.” Megales stepped to the wall, spanned with his fingers a space from the floor above a joint in the masonry, and pressed against the concrete. Inch by inch the wall fell back and opened into a lower corridor of the prison, the very one indeed which led to the cell in which Bucky and his love were imprisoned. Cautiously the Spaniard’s glance traveled down the passage to see it was empty before he opened the panel door more than enough to look through. Then he beckoned to Gabilonda. “Behold, doubting Thomas!”