come up here? I want to see her."

"Yes, I'll tell her. Now, my young friend, I must really leave you.
Business before pleasure, you know."

Jack looked about the room for something to read. He found among other
books a small volume, purporting to contain "The Adventures of Baron
Trenck."

It may be that the reader has never encountered a copy of this singular
book. Baron Trenck was several times imprisoned for political offenses,
and this book contains an account of the manner in which he succeeded,
after years of labor, in escaping from his dungeon.

Jack read the book with intense interest and wondered, looking about the
room, if he could not find some similar plan of escape.

CHAPTER XXVIII

THE SECRET STAIRCASE

The prospect certainly was not a bright one. The door was fast locked.
Escape from the windows seemed impracticable. This apparently exhausted
the avenues of escape that were open to the dissatisfied prisoner. But
accidentally Jack made an important discovery.

There was a full-length portrait in the room. Jack chanced to rest his
hand against it, when he must unconsciously have touched some secret
spring, for a secret door opened, dividing the picture in two parts,
and, to our hero's unbounded astonishment, he saw before him a small
spiral staircase leading down into the darkness.

"This is a queer old house!" thought Jack. "I wonder where those stairs
go to. I've a great mind to explore."

There was not much chance of detection, he reflected, as it would be
three hours before his next meal would be brought him. He left the door
open, therefore, and began slowly and cautiously to go down the
staircase. It seemed a long one, longer than was necessary to connect
two floors. Boldly Jack kept on till he reached the bottom.

"Where am I?" thought our hero. "I must be down as low as the cellar."

While this thought passed through his mind, voices suddenly struck upon
his ear. He had accustomed himself now to the darkness, and ascertained
that there was a crevice through which he could look in the direction
from which the sounds proceeded. Applying his eye, he could distinguish
a small cellar apartment, in the middle of which was a printing press,
and work was evidently going on. He could distinguish three persons. Two
were in their shirt sleeves, bending over an engraver's bench. Beside
them, and apparently superintending their work, was the old man whom
Jack knew as Dr. Robinson.

He app