Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/229

 "What door?" asked Zenas, following. His breath came in an involuntary gasp as the latch of the one leading outdoors rattled behind him. The next instant, however, with a low cry of triumph, Sally found a hidden spring, a narrow door, cleverly concealed in the wainscoting, swung inward, and she and Zenas stepped through the opening into a dark passage. They were just in time, for a second later Captains Camp and Littell, with their companions, reëntered the kitchen.

"Know—know ye whither this doth lead, Sally?" stammered Zenas, groping.

"Hush!" Sally's voice came to him in a stern whisper as the candlelight was abruptly blotted out by the closing of the little door. "Here!" She felt for and caught hold of his outstretched hand. "Come ye this way, Zenas!"

The boy stumbled cautiously after her. "Not so fast, prithee!" he whispered. "I—I—feel as though every step I—took would send me headlong into some dark hole!"

"That's because ye do not ktiow this passage!" returned Sally, with a stifled giggle. "I do assure ye 'tis naught but a perfectly safe, ordinary hall which takes us past the kitchen into the tavern garden—no mysterious secret passage this, for all that queer little door i' the wainscot! Ye see, I came this way one time when Mistress Todd did visit here and Mistress Banks, caught in an ancient gown by some