what _are_ you going to do?" whispered Cicely, who had
come with her to help if possible.

"Something I once saw a carpenter at our house do, if I can. Sh! Don't
make any noise," and, reaching up to the top hinge, Marie dropped a few
drops of oil from her can upon it, and then treated the lower one in the
same manner. The hinges were what are known as "fish hinges," the door
being held in place by a small iron peg slipped into the sockets of the
hinge. After she had oiled them, she placed her screw-driver under the
knob of the peg, when, lo! up it slid as easily as could be, and when both
had been carefully slid out of place, nothing prevented the door from
being softly drawn away from the hinges, swung outward, and if it did not
open from left to right, as it had been intended to open, it was quite as
easy to walk through it when it opened from right to left. To slip it back
into place, when five giggling girls had escaped, was equally easy, and no
one would ever have suspected the skillful bit of mechanical engineering
that had taken place under their very noses at ten-thirty that night.

CHAPTER XXVII

ARIADNE'S CLUE

The manner in which those liberated girls skipped down to the laundry was
certainly not snail-like. They had nearly reached it when Ruth's feet
became entangled in a piece of string, and, stooping down to loosen it,
she discovered a slip of paper fastened to the end, and a large pin which
had evidently stuck it fast to the door-casing. No doubt some of the girls
had brushed against it in their hurry-scurry to reach the laundry, and,
but for the ill wind which blew five of them into the housemaid's closet,
this significant scrap of paper would never have been discovered. The
candle they carried was brought to bear upon it, and they read the
following words:

In ancient days, so the stories say,
One Theseus found a remarkable way
Of reaching a point he wished to gain,
And down to posterity came his fame.

So, perhaps, posterity may also do well
To follow a "clue," but never to tell
Just what they found at the further end,
Lest a rule should break instead of bend.

"What can it mean? Where does it lead to?" were the questions eagerly
whispered.

"Come on, and let's find out," was Ruth's practical remark, and she began
to wind up the string. There seemed no end to it, an