fore she set about the second part of the search.
She received a letter from Mr. Tallboys in reply to that she had sent
him:

"MY DEAR MRS. CONWAY: I congratulate you most heartily upon the great
success you have met with. I own that I have never been very hopeful,
for after the thorough search we made of the room I hardly thought it
likely that you would succeed when we had failed; however, you have
done so, and I cannot doubt that a similar success will attend your
further efforts. In a small bare room such as you describe the
difficulties in the way of finding the hidden receptacle cannot be so
great as those you have already overcome. You are perfectly correct in
your supposition that the fragment you sent me was part of the letter
that I sent over with the will to Mr. Penfold by my clerk. I have
compared it with the copy in my letter book, and find that it is the
same. As you say, this letter proves conclusively that Mr. Penfold was
in this secret room after he received the will, and one can assign no
reason for his going there unless to put the will away in what he
considered a secure hiding-place. That it is still somewhere there I
have no doubt whatever, and I shall await with much anxiety news as to
your further progress."

Thinking the matter over, Mrs. Conway had come to the conclusion that
the hiding-place could only be under one of the stone flags of the
floor or in the wall against the fireplace, or rather in that part of
it above the fireplace. There would not be thickness enough in the
walls separating the secret chamber from the passage or the rooms on
either side of it; but the chimney would not be of the same width as
the open fireplace below, and there might well be a space there
sufficient for a good-sized closet. It was here, therefore, that she
determined to begin her search. The next night, then, after touching
the springs and entering the secret chamber, she began carefully to
examine each stone in the wall next the fireplace at a distance about
four feet above the ground.

In five minutes she uttered an exclamation of satisfaction. One of the
stones, above eighteen inches square, although like the rest fitting
closely to those adjoining it, was not, like the others, bedded in
cement. So close was the join that it needed a close inspection to see
that it was different from those around it. Still, upon close
examination, it was evident that it was not cemented in. Taking out a
penknife from h