d the constable, 'he is a dead man.'

'I find it easier,' said I, 'to believe in a living man than in a dead
man's ghost. I think I heard his footsteps at midnight, and they
seemed to me the footsteps of a person very nearly exhausted.
Therefore, constable, I have awaited your arrival with some
impatience. The words his late lordship endeavoured to write on the
paper were "The Secret". I am sure that the hieroglyphics with which
he ended his effort stood for the letter "R", and if he finished his
sentence, it would have stood: "The secret room". Now, constable, it
is a matter of legend that a secret room exists in this castle. Do you
know where it is?'

'No one knows where the secret room is, or the way to enter it, except
the Lords of Rantremly.'

'Well, I can assure you that the Lord of Rantremly who lives in London
knows nothing about it. I have been up and about since daylight,
taking some rough measurements by stepping off distances. I surmise
that the secret room is to the left of this stairway. Probably a whole
suite of rooms exists, for there is certainly a stair coinciding with
this one, and up that stair at midnight I heard a club-footed man
ascend. Either that, or the ghost that has frightened you all, and, as
I have said, I believe in the man.'

Here the official made the first sensible remark I had yet heard him
utter:--

'If the walls are so thick that a prisoner's cry has not been heard,
how could you hear his footsteps, which make much less noise?'

'That is very well put, constable, and when the same thing occurred to
me earlier this morning, I began to study the architecture of this
castle. In the first place, the entrance hall is double as wide at the
big doors as it is near the stairway. If you stand with your back to
the front door you will at once wonder why the builders made this
curious and unnecessary right angle, narrowing the farther part of the
hall to half its width. Then, as you gaze at the stair, and see that
marvellous carved oak newel post standing like a monumental column,
you guess, if you have any imagination, that the stairway, like the
hall, was once double as wide as it is now. We are seeing only half of
it, and doubtless we shall find a similar newel post within the hidden
room. You must remember, constable, that these secret apartments are
no small added chambers. Twice they have sheltered a king.'

The constable's head bent low at the mention of royalty. I saw that
his