insular prejudice against me and my methods was vanishing, and
that he had come to look upon me with greater respect than was shown
at first.

'The walls need not be thick to be impenetrable to sound. Two courses
of brick, and a space between filled with deafening would do it. The
secret apartment has been cut off from the rest of the house since the
castle was built, and was not designed by the original architect. The
partition was probably built in a hurry to fulfil a pressing need, and
it was constructed straight up the middle of the stair, leaving the
stout planks intact, each step passing thus, as it were, through the
wall. Now, when a man walks up the secret stairway, his footsteps
reverberate until one would swear that some unseen person was treading
the visible boards on the outside.'

'By Jove!' said the constable, in an awed tone of voice.

'Now, officer, I have here a pickaxe and a crowbar. I propose that we
settle the question at once.'

But to this proposal the constable demurred.

'You surely would not break the wall without permission from his
lordship in London?'

'Constable, I suspect there is no Lord Rantremly in London, and that
we will find a very emaciated but genuine Lord Rantremly within ten
feet of us. I need not tell you that if you are instrumental in his
immediate rescue without the exercise of too much red tape, your
interests will not suffer because you the more speedily brought food
and drink to the lord paramount of your district.'

'Right you are,' cried the constable, with an enthusiasm for which I
was not prepared. 'Where shall we begin?'

'Oh, anywhere; this wall is all false from the entrance hall to some
point up here. Still, as the butler was carrying the meal upstairs I
think we shall save time if we begin on the landing.'

I found the constable's brawn much superior to his brain. He worked
like a sansculotte on a barricade. When we had torn down part of the
old oak panelling, which it seemed such a pity to mutilate with axe
and crowbar, we came upon a brick wall, that quickly gave way before
the strength of the constable. Then we pulled out some substance like
matting, and found a second brick wall, beyond which was a further
shell of panelling. The hole we made revealed nothing but darkness
inside, and although we shouted, there was no answer. At last, when we
had hewn it large enough for a man to enter, I took with me an
electric torch, and stepped inside, the constab