ot to tell the police what we have found out, and then
they can explore the passage for themselves. But I don't want to do that
yet."

"Rather not.

"So we've got to carry on secretly for a bit. It's the only way." He
smiled and added, "And it's much more fun."

"Rather!" Bill chuckled to himself.

"Very well. Where does the secret passage begin?"

CHAPTER XI. The Reverend Theodore Ussher

"There's one thing, which we have got to realize at once," said Antony,
"and that is that if we don't find it easily, we shan't find it at all."

"You mean that we shan't have time?"

"Neither time nor opportunity. Which is rather a consoling thought to a
lazy person like me."

"But it makes it much harder, if we can't really look properly."

"Harder to find, yes, but so much easier to look. For instance, the
passage might begin in Cayley's bedroom. Well, now we know that it
doesn't."

"We don't know anything of the sort," protested Bill.

"We--know for the purposes of our search. Obviously we can't go
tailing into Cayley's bedroom and tapping his wardrobes; and obviously,
therefore, if we are going to look for it at all, we must assume that it
doesn't begin there."

"Oh, I see." Bill chewed a piece of grass thoughtfully. "Anyhow, it
wouldn't begin on an upstairs floor, would it?"

"Probably not. Well, we're getting on."

"You can wash out the kitchen and all that part of the house," said
Bill, after more thought. "We can't go there."

"Right. And the cellars, if there are any."

"Well, that doesn't leave us much."

"No. Of course it's only a hundred-to-one chance that we find it, but
what we want to consider is which is the most likely place of the few
places in which we can look safely."

"All it amounts to," said Bill, "is the living-rooms downstairs
dining-room, library, hall, billiard-room and the office rooms."

"Yes, that's all."

"Well, the office is the most likely, isn't it?"

"Yes. Except for one thing."

"What's that?"

"Well, it's on the wrong side of the house. One would expect the passage
to start from the nearest place to which it is going. Why make it longer
by going under the house first?"

"Yes, that's true. Well, then, you think the dining-room or the
library?"

"Yes. And the library for choice. I mean for our choice. There are
always servants going into dining-rooms. We shouldn't have much of a
chance of exploring properly in there. Besides, there's another thing to
reme