A moment later, I opened a door which exhibited a closet filled
with clothes hanging on hooks. This left a space of five feet between
the clothes closet and the lavatory. I thought at first that the
entrance to the secret stairway must have issued from the lavatory,
but examining the boards closely, although they sounded hollow to the
knuckles, they were quite evidently plain matchboarding, and not a
concealed door. The entrance to the stairway, therefore, must issue
from the clothes closet. The right hand wall proved similar to the
matchboarding of the lavatory as far as the casual eye or touch was
concerned, but I saw at once it was a door. The latch turned out to be
somewhat ingeniously operated by one of the hooks which held a pair of
old trousers. I found that the hook, if pressed upward, allowed the
door to swing outward, over the stairhead. Descending to the second
floor, a similar latch let me in to a similar clothes closet in the
room beneath. The two rooms were identical in size, one directly above
the other, the only difference being that the lower room door gave
into the study, instead of into the hall, as was the case with the
upper chamber.
The study was extremely neat, either not much used, or the abode of a
very methodical man.
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