"I saw lights up here from outside," continued the Doctor easily.
"And I thought--"
Miss Cornelia interrupted him. She had set down her candle and
laid the revolver on the top of the clothes hamper and now stood
gazing at the mantel-fireplace.
"The mantel's--closed!" she said.
The Doctor stared. So the secret of the Hidden Room was a secret
no longer. He saw ruin gaping before him--a bottomless abyss.
"Damnation!" he cursed impotently under his breath.
Bailey turned on him savagely.
"Did you shut that mantel?"
"No!"
"I'll see whether you shut it or not!" Bailey leaped toward the
fireplace. "Dale! Dale!" he called desperately, leaning against
the mantel. His fingers groped for the knob that worked the
mechanism of the hidden entrance.
The Doctor picked up the single lighted candle from the hamper, as
if to throw more light on Bailey's task. Bailey's fingers found
the knob. He turned it. The mantel began to swing out into the
room.
As it did so the Doctor deliberately snuffed out the light of the
candle he held, leaving the room in abrupt and obliterating darkness.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
ANDERSON MAKES AN ARREST
"Doctor, why did you put out that candle?" Miss Cornelia's voice
cut the blackness like a knife.
"I didn't--I--"
"You did--I saw you do it."
The brief exchange of accusation and denial took but an instant of
time, as the mantel swung wide open. The next instant there was a
rush of feet across the floor, from the fireplace--the shock of a
collision between two bodies--the sound of a heavy fall.
Pages:
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220