gles' may be hiding somewhere, and rush
out as soon as the horse has passed them. That was my uncle Nicholas,"
he continued, as he hobbled along. "I don't think I ever told you
about him. He's my father's only brother, but they quarrelled some
years ago, and now they never meet or speak."

"Why was that?" I asked.

"Oh, it was about the property. My grandfather left Coverthorne and
almost all the land to my father, and Uncle Nicholas had only a small
farm called Stonebank; but before that he'd had a lot of money to
enable him to start in business, and he lost it all in speculation. He
said at my grandfather's death that the property and land ought to have
been divided, but my father told him he had already had his share in
money."

"Your people have lived at Coverthorne an awful time, haven't they?" I
asked.

"Oh yes. It's a dear old house, with low rooms and big latticed
windows with stone mullions, and a broad oak staircase. There's an old
sundial in the garden which was put there in Queen Elizabeth's reign;
and what's more, the house has a secret place which nobody can find."

"A secret place! what's that?" I inquired, pricking up my ears.

"Why, it's a little secret chamber or hiding-place which has been made
somewhere in the building years and years ago, when there might be
chances of people having to be concealed to save their lives. There is
a rule in our family, handed down from one generation to another, that
the whereabouts of the secret place must only be known to the owner of
the house, and be told by him to the heir when he is twenty-one."

"Then you yourself don't know where it is?"

"No; my father will tell me when I come of age. Of course if he were
dying, or were going on a long journey from which he might never
return, or anything of that kind were to happen, he would tell me at
once, else the secret might be lost for ever."

"Is it big enough for a man to get into?"

"Oh yes--big enough for two people to stand in, so father says."

"Then surely it must be easy to find. I can't see how it's possible
for there to be a little room in a house without people knowing it is
there. I believe I could find it for you if you gave me the chance."

Miles laughed.

"You'd better come over and try," he answered. "Now, that's a good
idea. You must come and stay with me for part of the summer holidays,
and we'll have heaps of fun. It would be jolly to have you, for I
often find it dull wi