tion with the greatest method; he walked round each room carefully, looking for a door that might lead to a staircase; but there was no sign of one.
“What will you do if you can’t find the way up?” asked Susie.
“I shall find the way up,” he answered.
They came to the staircase once more and had discovered nothing. They looked at one another helplessly.
“It’s quite clear there is a way,” said Arthur, with impatience. “There must be something in the nature of a hidden door somewhere or other.”
He leaned against the balustrade and meditated. The light of his lantern threw a narrow ray upon the opposite wall.
“I feel certain it must be in one of the rooms at the end of the house. That seems the most natural place to put a means of ascent to the attics.”
They went back, and again he examined the pannelling of a small room that had outside walls on three sides of it. It was the only one that did not lead into another.
“It must be here,” he said.
Presently he gave a little laugh, for he saw that a small door was concealed by the woodwork. He pressed it where he thought there might be a spring, and it flew open. Their lantern showed them a narrow wooden staircase. They walked up and found themselves in front of a door. Arthur tried it, but it was locked. He smiled grimly.
“Will you get back a little,” he said.
He lifted his axe and swung it down upon the
