we have no time for anything but action,
so, if you are ready, we will proceed at once."

"I am quite ready," she answered; "but I feel very undecided what to do.
My father told me to prepare for a journey, and to be ready to leave
the chateau with you at any moment, but do you think I should be
justified in doing so, now that he is in such dreadful peril?"

"The peril is by no means as great as you appear to think," said I, "and
your compliance with your father's instructions will relieve him of a
very serious embarrassment; so let us not linger another moment, I
entreat you."

The suggestion that her presence might possibly prove embarrassing to
her father at once decided her, and, placing her hand in mine, she said
simply, "I am ready; let us go," and moved to the door of the apartment.

We passed down the entire length of the corridor, and presently reached
the head of a staircase leading to the rear portion of the house, and
ordinarily used exclusively by the servants. Descending this, we
traversed a short passage at its foot, and finally emerged through a
door into the garden at the rear. A path closely bordered with
mulberry-trees led down through the centre of this garden, passing down
which we eventually reached a rustic, building ordinarily used as a
tool-house. Entering this, Francesca turned to me and said,--

"Now, Ralph, there is a secret door in that back wall, but I have never
been through it, so I do not know its exact position. But it is opened
by pressing a spring, the head of which is formed like an ordinary nail-
head, differing from the others only in that it projects a little more
from the woodwork than the others. Do you think you can find it?"

I ran my hand over the boarding, and soon encountered what would have
seemed to any one unacquainted with the secret merely an ill-driven
nail. Pressing firmly upon this, it yielded; a cleverly-concealed door
opened and revealed a very narrow passage-like space between the wooden
partition and the solid stone boundary-wall of the garden. Entering
this and turning my back upon the open door, in accordance with
Francesca's directions, and feeling cautiously before me with my feet, I
found myself standing at the head of a flight of stone steps. These I
cautiously descended, Francesca following closely behind me after
closing the secret door in her rear, and in a _few_ seconds we found
ourselves at the foot of the steps, and standing in an arche