a secret passage. Some of the guides
hereabouts show what they solemnly explain was one of the outlets of
the secret passage in bygone days. Do you care to devote five minutes
to looking at the ridiculous thing?"

Mlle. Nadiboff smilingly accepted the suggestion, so Hal and Jack also
agreed. The reporter led the way across a field, pausing at last before
a fringe of weeds and low bushes.

"Now, just step through this wild hedge," Hennessy proposed, smilingly,
"and you'll see how little it takes to start a yarn. Look out, though,
that you don't fall down."

As they stepped through the fringe cautiously the members of the party
found themselves peering down the shaft of what appeared to be a very
ordinary well. It was circular, in shape, and had been laid, on the
inside, with a masonry of stones.

"There is water at the bottom, isn't there?" inquired the woman Spy.

"Yes," replied Hennessy. "It was never anything more than a well. Yet,
day before yesterday, one of the local guides brought me here and
insisted on telling me all about its having been an outlet of a famous
secret passage from the castle. I had some fishing tackle in my
pocket, so I rigged up a line and weight, and let it down. I satisfied
myself that there were about four feet of greenish, slimy water at
the bottom of a well. I wish you could have seen the guide's face!"

"Here come some visitors, now," nudged Hal.

Two men and four women, led by a guide, approached the place.

"This shaft looks dark and mysterious enough," began the guide, reeling
off a well learned lesson, "to be as full of historic interest and
mystery as it really is. This shaft is what is left of one of the
outlets of the famous secret passage to and from the castle."

While the new visitors crowded about, asking questions and offering
remarks, the party that Hennessy was guiding stepped into the background,
secretly enjoying the guide's buncombe.

"If people would only stop to use their good sense a bit," whispered
Hennessy, "they'd know, at once, that the shaft is only a long disused
well."

"Great Scott!" whispered Jack. "Here come Mr. Farnum and Eph with a
guide. Let's see if they will be buncoed."

Guide number two came up, with the shipbuilder and Somers in tow.
Greetings were exchanged. Then the last arrived pair stepped forward
in the guide's wake. Farnum listened with an amused smile.

"Oh, pshaw!" grunted Eph. "Is this the best you can show us?