yet got through the
wall: no light was visible! He made haste to restore things--only a
stool and a few papers--to their exact positions when first he entered.
Close to him on the other side of the partition, shaking the place, the
huge blows were falling like those of a ram on the wall of a besieged
city, of which he was the whole garrison. He stepped into the press and
drew the door after him: with his last glance behind him he saw, in the
faint gleam of light that came with it, a stone fall: he must make
haste: the demolition would go on much faster now; but before they had
the opening large enough to pass, he would have done what he wanted!
With a strong piece of iron for a lever, he drew the staple from the
post, then drove it in astride of the bolt, careful to time his blows
to those of the masons. That done, he ran down to the chapel, gathered
what dust he could sweep up from behind the altar and laid it on its
top, restored on the bed, with its own dust, a little of the outline of
what had lain there, dropped the slab to its place in the floor of the
passage, closed the door of the chapel with some difficulty because of
its broken hinge, and ascended.

The sounds of battering had ceased, and as he passed the oak door he
laid his ear to it: some one was in the place! the lid of the bureau
shut with a loud bang, and he heard a lock turned. The wall could not
be half down yet: the earl must have entered the moment he could get
through!

Donal hastened up, and out of the dreadful place, put the slab in the
opening, secured it with a strut against the opposite side of the
recess, and closed the shutters and drew the curtains of the room; if
the earl came up the stair in the wall, found the stone immovable, and
saw no light through any chink about its edges, he would not suspect it
had been displaced!

He went then to lady Arctura.

"I have a great deal to tell you," he said, "but at this moment I
cannot: I am afraid of the earl finding me with you!"

"Why should you mind that?" said Arctura.

"Because I think he is suspicious about the lost room. He has had a
wall taken down this morning. Please do not let him see you know
anything about it. Davie thinks he is set on finding the lost room: I
think he knew all about it long ago. You can ask him what he has been
doing: you must have heard the masons!"

"I hope I shall not stumble into anything like a story, for if I do I
must out with everything!"

In the a