began to beat fast. Arthur
conducted his examination with the greatest method; he walked round
each room carefully, looking for a door that might lead to a staircase;
but there was no sign of one.

'What will you do if you can't find the way up?' asked Susie.

'I shall find the way up,' he answered.

They came to the staircase once more and had discovered nothing. They
looked at one another helplessly.

'It's quite clear there is a way,' said Arthur, with impatience. 'There
must be something in the nature of a hidden door somewhere or other.'

He leaned against the balustrade and meditated. The light of his lantern
threw a narrow ray upon the opposite wall.

'I feel certain it must be in one of the rooms at the end of the house.
That seems the most natural place to put a means of ascent to the
attics.'

They went back, and again he examined the panelling of a small room that
had outside walls on three sides of it. It was the only room that did not
lead into another.

'It must be here,' he said.

Presently he gave a little laugh, for he saw that a small door was
concealed by the woodwork. He pressed it where he thought there might be
a spring, and it flew open. Their torch showed them a narrow wooden
staircase. They walked up and found themselves in front of a door. Arthur
tried it, but it was locked. He smiled grimly.

'Will you get back a little,' he said.

He lifted his axe and swung it down upon the latch. The handle was
shattered, but the lock did not yield. He shook his head. As he paused
for a moment, an there was a complete silence, Susie distinctly heard a
slight noise. She put her hand on Arthur's arm to call his attention to
it, and with strained ears they listened. There was something alive on
the other side of the door. They heard its curious sound: it was not that
of a human voice, it was not the crying of an animal, it was
extraordinary.

It was the sort of gibber, hoarse and rapid, and it filled them with an
icy terror because it was so weird and so unnatural.

'Come away, Arthur,' said Susie. 'Come away.'

'There's some living thing in there,' he answered.

He did not know why the sound horrified him. The sweat broke out on his
forehead.

'Something awful will happen to us,' whispered Susie, shaking with
uncontrollable fear.

'The only thing is to break the door down.'

The horrid gibbering was drowned by the noise he made. Quickly, without
pausing, he began to hack at the oak do