og barking! There 'tis again! Liven up,
sir; we can't be far from help."

For a moment I seemed to recover full possession of my senses; my brain
was feverishly active as a sudden inspiration came to my mind--the
weird song of the wind through the keyhole, the long uphill slope of
the passage, the barking of the dog.

"George," I cried, "I know where we are! We're in the secret place at
Coverthorne! We must be close to the haunted room, perhaps directly
under it; and the wind was the ghost!" I broke out into a fit of wild
hysterical laughter, and ended by bursting into tears.

"Steady, steady, sir," cried George. "What d'you mean? What are you
talking about?"

With an effort recovering my self-possession, I told him in a few words
what I meant, and how I believed we had unwittingly discovered the old
house's secret chamber.

"But what can we do?" I exclaimed. "We may stay buried here for any
length of time, and no one know where we are or how to get us out."

Woodley was certainly a man of quick resource. He stood thinking for a
moment; then picking up the lamp, he carried it out into the tunnel,
and returning closed the door. Standing in the pitch darkness, we saw
for the first time a faint gray shadow as it were, but a few inches
long, which filtered through between one granite slab and the end wall
of the cell. Faint and indistinct it might be, but at the sight of it
our hearts leaped within us: this was daylight at last!

"Hurrah!" shouted George. "Yonder's the way out? Now I'll soon have
some one to open the door for us, or may I never ride behind four
horses again!"

He brought back the lamp, and then commenced to yell at the top of his
voice, varying this proceeding by hurling the wooden stool up against
the slabs overhead, which, in spite of the injury to his left arm, he
continued doing till every leg was smashed and only the seat remained.

"Yo-ho!" he shouted. "The dog's heard me; he's barking like mad.
Yo-ho! help here--help!"

I made some feeble attempt to contribute to the uproar, but my voice
seemed suddenly to have failed me, and my cheer was nothing but a
croak. Strange noises were ringing in my ears, and a shower of sparks
danced before my eyes.

How long this continued I could not have told, but at length there was
a muffled, "Who are you down there?" and more shouting on the part of
George. Then I became aware of the fact that Woodley was hugging me in
his arms, laughing