In the first place, the entrance hall is double as wide at the
big doors as it is near the stairway. If you stand with your back to
the front door you will at once wonder why the builders made this
curious and unnecessary right angle, narrowing the farther part of the
hall to half its width. Then, as you gaze at the stair, and see that
marvellous carved oak newel post standing like a monumental column,
you guess, if you have any imagination, that the stairway, like the
hall, was once double as wide as it is now. We are seeing only half of
it, and doubtless we shall find a similar newel post within the hidden
room. You must remember, constable, that these secret apartments are
no small added chambers. Twice they have sheltered a king.'
The constable's head bent low at the mention of royalty. I saw that
his insular prejudice against me and my methods was vanishing, and
that he had come to look upon me with greater respect than was shown
at first.
'The walls need not be thick to be impenetrable to sound. Two courses
of brick, and a space between filled with deafening would do it. The
secret apartment has been cut off from the rest of the house since the
castle was built, and was not designed by the original architect.
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