I think I heard his footsteps at midnight, and they
seemed to me the footsteps of a person very nearly exhausted.
Therefore, constable, I have awaited your arrival with some
impatience. The words his late lordship endeavoured to write on the
paper were "The Secret". I am sure that the hieroglyphics with which
he ended his effort stood for the letter "R", and if he finished his
sentence, it would have stood: "The secret room". Now, constable, it
is a matter of legend that a secret room exists in this castle. Do you
know where it is?'
'No one knows where the secret room is, or the way to enter it, except
the Lords of Rantremly.'
'Well, I can assure you that the Lord of Rantremly who lives in London
knows nothing about it. I have been up and about since daylight,
taking some rough measurements by stepping off distances. I surmise
that the secret room is to the left of this stairway. Probably a whole
suite of rooms exists, for there is certainly a stair coinciding with
this one, and up that stair at midnight I heard a club-footed man
ascend. Either that, or the ghost that has frightened you all, and, as
I have said, I believe in the man.'
Here the official made the first sensible remark I had yet heard him
utter:--
'If the walls are so thick that a prisoner's cry has not been heard,
how could you hear his footsteps, which make much less noise?'
'That is very well put, constable, and when the same thing occurred to
me earlier this morning, I began to study the architecture of this
castle.
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