"WHO?" GREGORY ASKED. "I DON'T KNOW." "WELL, IT'S NOT THE END," SAID
MISS REDSTONE; "BUT THE END IS VERY NEAR, AND THAT WILL EXPLAIN
EVERYTHING." AND SHE BEGAN AGAIN.

The boys and their companion had not been gone an hour when in rode the
Captain and his two soldiers with a terrible clatter. The Captain
leaped from his horse, and strode into the house, roaring for the men
he had left on guard. Barbara, who was in the library with Rupert,
heard the noise and divined its meaning.

"Rupert," she said swiftly, on a sudden inspiration, "will you add one
more kindness to your long list? Will you hide in here for a few
minutes?" So saying, she showed him the secret chamber.

Rupert hesitated not a moment, but swung himself up and was lost to
view. The picture hardly descended when the Captain entered.

"Ha!" he cried, casting a quick glance at Barbara. "So you have escaped
my soldiers' vigilance. A nice story of traitorous mutiny I shall have
to report to London! Three of the Parliament's men beaten and bound,
and rebels here in hiding. For there is a hiding-place here, I will lay
my life, and by the look in your eyes, mistress, the bird is still in
it."

So saying, he set his men once more to work on the walls, and himself
attacked the portrait. Barbara stood by watching them. After five
minutes' fumbling the spring was touched. The Captain leaped into the
cavity, and they heard him utter a cry of triumph. A moment later he
came forth, leading Rupert. But his expression of joy vanished when he
gained the light, dim though it was, and found that his captive was but
a schoolboy, and a laughing one at that.

"Tricked again!" he cried, as he flung the lad off and dashed from the
room.

His men followed, and in a moment they were all in the saddle.

Barbara turned to Rupert with a smile. "Thank you!" she said.

"You are splendid!" was all he could say in reply.

"If you will bring me a candle," said Barbara, "I will look at the
little room again."

Bidding Rupert remain exactly where he was, she entered the secret
room. "The Captain was too impetuous," she remarked, picking up a
letter addressed to herself; "he ought to have gone on after
discovering Rupert." "To Mistress Myddelton," the superscription ran,
and she opened it with trembling fingers.

"Thank you," was all it said, but the signature struck her dizzy. It
was the signature of the exiled Prince.

"I KNEW IT!" HESTER EXCLAIMED.

"BUT IT DOESN'T HU