CHAPTER XXIII
THE MYSTERY OF THE MANSE BARN
"By all that's wonderful," cried Laurence to Lena after the solemnmid-day meal was at an end, "if I haven't forgotten about the clue Mr.Oliver Potter so generously gave me! Let me think--he said if I went tothe cupboard in the Squire's bedroom I should find a cardboard boxcontaining something which would prove of use in our investigation. Ifyou will wait here for half a minute (I know you will excuse me) I willfetch the box, and we will pry into its mysterious contents."
He left the dining-room, returning, however, a few moments later with ayellow collar-box. From this he permitted Lena to remove the lid. Thegirl gave a cry of dismay when she caught sight of the unpleasantcontents of the box. The odour that arose from the carcase of the batwhich the detective had so carefully preserved was none too pleasant,while to a woman the sight of anything so closely resembling a mouse asdoes a bat is usually enough to cause an exclamation of horror.
Laurence was much annoyed when he perceived the clue which Potter hadleft behind him.
"It's his pretty revenge for his dismissal," he said. "An extremely poorpractical joke, which I am surprised that a man of Potter's age shoulddescend to. Here, let me throw it away."
And he suited the action to the word by flinging the little carcase outof the open window and into the middle of a cluster of bushes.
"Now for the barn," Laurence proceeded. "Shall we make our examinationof it at once, as Meadows suggested?"
"I am quite ready, if you are," replied Lena.
"Then let us go at once, before something else arises to cause us toforget what we were about to do, as something has done so many timesbefore during this investigation."
A few minutes later they were both in the barn, tapping the panels ofthe wall and the floor and searching among the hay for some sign of thesecret hiding-place, in which, according to Doctor Meadows' reasoning,the Squire's enemy was lurking.
Search as they might, though, no success rewarded their praiseworthyefforts. An hour passed, yet they still persevered, though Lena was hotand tired with stooping. Laurence had made the most minute examinationof the roof, yet he had to confess himself beaten.
"I cannot understand it," he said. "It didn't take me half a minute, oranything like so long, to knock the hay which the rascal threw at me outof my eyes, yet in that short space of time our man managed, aided bythe darkness, of course, to effect his escape. The question is, how?"
"Come, we mustn't be beaten. The secret trap-door, or whatever it is,must be somewhere in the roof. Try again, and instead of only tappingthe wood, press it hard occasionally."
Laurence did as he was told. He reached the cross-beam on which thecreature with the shrill voice had been discovered, and from there, bymeans of the ladder, reached the beam at the top of the building (whichformed, with the point made by the meeting of the ascending sides of thethatched roof, a large letter A).
Here, as will be easily understood, the young man had to sit (on thecross-bar of the A) with head bent down owing to the proximity of theactual roof.
Once, however, while talking to Lena, who was standing immediately belowhim, he raised his head, forgetting that he was unable to do so withoutstriking it against the top. Then a strange thing happened.
The force of his pressure on the side of the roof caused it to roll backsuddenly like a trap-door. It fell back, until a roomy space wasrevealed immediately above Laurence's head. And yet, looking through,young Carrington was astounded beyond measure to find that he couldn't(as might have been expected) gaze straight up at the blue sky, but whathe saw several feet above him was a second thatched roof shaped exactlylike that under which he had been sitting!
Then, in an instant, he knew the secret of the Manse barn. The roof wasa double one, its mechanism being exactly similar to that of thedouble-bottomed boxes that for so long were the means of cheating ourCustom-House officials of the duties payable upon articles which were bythis means smuggled into the country free of tax.
Laurence informed Lena in low tones of his discovery, and, promising toreturn in a minute or two, raised himself by his arms to a ledge whichpresented itself immediately above him. No sooner had he done so thanthe sham roof closed down noiselessly, and young Carrington foundhimself in a long, low room or attic, unfurnished, and with apparentlythe dust of ages upon its panelled walls, its thatched roof (the realroof of the barn), and its uneven flooring.
In the excitement of the moment Laurence paid no attention to theclosing of the trap-door.
Thanks to a ray of light that stole through a rent in the straw thatch,he was able to look around him.
The room he was in was the exact size of the barn itself, only, owing tothe low ceiling, its size seemed greater than it actually was.
Taking his match-box from his pocket, the young man struck a light, heldit above his head, being careful not to ignite the dry straw of theroof, and gazed around.
He was able to assure himself that no one was hiding in the attic--infact, there was no room for anything larger than a rat to hide. This, atany rate, was satisfactory. The feeble light also satisfied theinvestigator on another point.
Though the mysterious creature whom he had encountered by night belowwhere he now stood was not at that moment concealed in this carefullyhidden lair, there were unmistakable signs of him in a number offoot-shaped patches in the dust accumulated on the floor. Laurence notedwith a feeling of delight that these patches were, in size and shape,identical with those he had discovered to be the footprints of the"cyclist highwayman."
Very quickly, after he had extinguished the match, did Laurence's eyesbecome accustomed to the semi-darkness, and he was able to prosecutehis search without the assistance of any light.
Another startling discovery was in wait for him. In a far corner of theattic there was a trap-door in the floor, in the manufacture of which noattempt had been made to conceal it from view, as in the case of thefalse roof. An iron ring was conveniently placed at one side of this,and, in a state of excited expectancy, Laurence without difficultyraised the trap-door, which revealed (as does the inevitable trap-doorin children's fairy tales) a narrow staircase, dark and dismal.
Without hesitation, and carefully groping his way, he started down thestaircase, which was so narrow and small that in places he was compelledto move down sideways and stooping almost double. In such a place, hethought to himself, height is a distinct disadvantage; yet, in spite ofall, and though he considered it extremely possible that he might at anymoment run against his father's lurking enemy, he pushed on downstairsuntil the bottom was reached.
He dared not strike a match, for fear that, if anyone was hiding near,he might lie in wait for the new-comer, and, knowing the place betterthan Laurence, overcome him without difficulty.
Where was he, and what did all these secret places mean? Only onesolution was possible. The barn, in addition to having a false roof, hadalso a sham side to it, and there was sufficient space between the outerside and the panelled inner one for the staircase down which he hadcome, and which led to--where?