“Not in the least,” the factor answered gallantly. “Come with us, if you like, but I warn you it will be a dusty undertaking.”
“I am not afraid of dust or cobwebs,” Flora said laughingly.
She slipped a hand under my arm, and as we followed Macdonald and Burley upstairs I told her in a few hurried words what we had discovered.
“It is not much,” she replied. “And what good can the trunk do Mr. Burley unless he can open it?”
“I’m afraid the factor won’t permit that,” said I. “He could do it only with a legal order of some sort.”
By this time Macdonald had led us through two empty rooms on the upper floor, and now he stopped at the door of a third.
“This is the place,” he said fitting a key in the lock.
An instant later the door swung open, revealing darkness within, and letting a musty, ancient odor escape. Christopher Burley stumbled over the threshold, and the rest of us followed him.
“This is worse than the underground passage at Fort Royal,” said Flora. “The room needs airing badly. Are you going to give us any light, Mr. Macdonald?”
“At once,” the factor replied.