e there ought to be some sort of a
spring _this_ side to open it, so that the hidden man might be able to
get out again when he wanted to. But where? Faugh! My fingers must be
losing their cunning, and--Ah, here it is! Bit of wood gives way here,
Dollops. Just a gentle pressure, and--here we are!"

And here they were, indeed, for as he spoke, the door slid back into the
flooring out of sight, and they found themselves looking up into a room
which was lighted by a single gas-jet, which barely illumined it, but
which, when Cleek poked his head up above the flooring and took a casual
survey of the place proved to be no less a place than the back kitchen of
Merriton Towers!

He brought his head down again with a jerk, touched the spring in the
edge of oak-panelling at the left of him, and let the door swing back
across the opening once more; and not till it had slipped into place with
a little _click_ did he turn upon Dollops.

"_Merriton Towers_!" he ejaculated finally. "Merriton Towers! Now, if
young Merriton really _is_ a party to this thing that is going on down
here in the bowels of the earth, why--Dash it, it's going to prove an
even worse case against him than we knew! A chap who plays an underhanded
game like this doesn't mind what he walks over to attain his ends.
But ... Merriton Towers...!"

He stopped speaking suddenly, sucked in his breath, his face turned very
grim. Dollops broke the silence that fell, a tremour of excitement in his
low-pitched voice.

"Yus--but it's the _back-kitchen_, sir," he threw out eagerly, like all
the rest of them anxious if possible to shield the man who seemed to have
won so many hearts. "And the back-kitchen don't spell Sir Nigel, sir.
It's Borkins wot's at the bottom of _that_, and--"

"Maybe, maybe," interposed Cleek, a trifle hastily, but the grim look
did not leave his face. "But if anything as curious as all this affair
turns up in the evidence it won't help the boy any, that is a
certainty.... Merriton Towers!"

He swung upon his heel and quickly retraced his steps, until the little
stone passageway was left behind them, and a few feet ahead loomed up
another of those queer turnings, which led--who knew where?

"We'll take it on chance," said Cleek as they paused, while he marked it
in his chart, "and follow our noses. But I confess I've had a shock. I
never thought--never even dreamt of Merriton Towers being connected with
this smuggling or, whatever it is, Dollops!