esently he comes to that door.
'Where does this lead to?' said he. 'A private room,' said I, 'and
please to keep your hands off it.' Not he. He lays hold of the false
knob, and shakes it, and turns it, and pushes the door, trying to open
it. It was fast. Old West had come out of there before going out, and
catch him ever leaving that door open! I say, Jan, one would think he
kept skeletons there."

"Is that all?" asked Jan, alluding to the story.

"Wait a bit. The fellow put his big fist upon the latch-key-hole--I
think he must have been a feller of trees, I do--and his knee to the
door, and he burst it open. Burst it open, Jan! you never saw such
strength."

"I could burst any door open that I had a mind to," was the response of
Jan.

"He burst it open," continued young Cheese, "and burst it against old
West. You should have seen 'em stare! They both stared. I stared. I
think the chap did not mean to do it; that he was only trying his
strength for pastime. But now, Jan, the odd part of the business is, how
did West get in? If there's not another door, he must have got down the
chimney."

Jan went on with his compounding, and made no response.

"And if there _is_ a door, he must have been mortal sly over it,"
resumed the young gentleman. "He must have gone right out from here, and
in at the side gate of the garden, and got in that way. I wonder what he
did it for?"

"It isn't any business of ours," said Jan.

"Then I think it is," retorted Master Cheese. "I'd like to know how many
times he has been in there, listening to us, when we thought him a mile
off. It's a shame!"

"It's nothing to me who listens," said Jan equably. "I don't say things
behind people's backs, that I'd not say before their faces."

"I do," acknowledged young Cheese. "Wasn't there a row! Didn't he and
the man go on at each other! They shut themselves up in that room, and
had it out."

"What did the man want?" asked Jan.

"I'd like to know. He and old West had it out together, I say, but they
didn't admit me to the conference. Goodness knows where he had come
from. West seemed to know him. Jan, I heard something about him and the
Chalk Cottage folks yesterday."

"You had better take yourself to a safe distance," advised Jan. "If this
goes off with a bang, your face will come in for the benefit."

"I say, though, it's you that must take care and not let it go off,"
returned Master Cheese, edging, nevertheless, a little away. "But ab