ittle what Sartoris said to Beatrice, for the gist of the
conversation could easily be gathered from the girl on some future
occasion. But opportunities for examining that strange dining-room did
not offer themselves at every hour, and Berrington made up his mind to
make the best of it. He pulled on his boots again, and set to work.

For some time there was nothing to reward his search. The carpet
appeared to be intact, the table a solid structure of mahogany. And yet
there must be some means of moving that table up and down, much in the
same way as the thing used to be done in the case of a certain French
king and the lady of his affections.

But there was absolutely nothing here to show that anything of the kind
had been done. Berrington removed the flowers and the table cloth and
looked underneath. So far without success. He rapped in a reflective way
on the solid legs and they gave back a clear ringing sound. With a smile
of satisfaction, Berrington took a pocket knife from his vest.

Then he bent down and slightly scraped one of the solid-looking legs.
The edge of the knife turned up and a thin strip of bright gold showed
beneath the vanish. The first discovery had been made. The legs of the
table were of hollow metal.

There was something to go on with at any rate. Dining tables do not have
legs made of hollow metal for nothing. Berrington tried to push the
table aside, so that he could tilt it up and see the base of the legs,
but the structure refused to budge an inch. Here was discovery number
two. The table was bolted solidly into the floor.

"We are getting on," Berrington whispered to himself. "It seems to me
that I need not worry myself any further about the table itself, seeing
that, so to speak, it is attached to the freehold. It is the floor that
I have to look to."

But the floor appeared to be quite intact. There were no seams along the
Turkey carpet. Berrington turned the carpet back as far as it would go,
but nothing suspicious presented itself to his searching eye. As he
dropped the carpet back his foot touched the curb of the fireplace, and
one end slid along. It seemed a curious thing that one end of the old
oak curb should work on a pivot, but so it did, and Berrington pushed it
as far as it would go. An instant later and he jumped nimbly into the
fireplace.

It was just as well he did so, for the whole floor was slowly fading
away, just up to the edge of the carpet, leaving the brown board