But to all my confidences Worthing returned but little. He rather sniffed at my talk of smugglers. They were creatures outside the law; his natural enemies. All he told me was that he would soon be going to his uncle in London to study law. His father lived in York, but there was no opening in the provinces, Worthing informed me in his grown-up manner, for a fellow with real brains. We paid several visits to Sunset Towers; for though my father was away, I thought it was only for a while, and I still looked upon the house as my own, and without scruple used to take what chums I chose for a scramble and a game there. But I was wise enough to keep my own counsel about the ghost and the skeleton. I didn't even tell Worthing of the strange visitation which had sent my father fleeing from the place. But we were both very much concerned to find the secret passage where I had lost my way and had gripped the skeleton by the hand. Again and again we came to the corner where Worthing had found me, but the wall continued to confront us, grim and unyielding, refusing to give up its secret. I remember how I admired the business-like way in which Worthing set about his investigations. For my part, I gave the reins to my imagination. If a place seemed shadowy and mysterious I promptly concluded that it hid some secret door or stairway; but Worthing would point out how impossible that was by the mere configuration of the building. For he took careful measurements and made elaborate plans, till after some weeks every known corner of the huge straggling house lay clearly in its right place and proportion. And then it was obvious where the mystery was concealed by the spaces that lay blank and unexplored though according to the plan built in. In fact we could almost trace the path of the passage we were in search of; and that to me explained the mystery of that last night which my father and I had spent there. For the passage wound away from the corner where Worthing had found me, though of course on the other side of the wall, up a flight of stairs, into a chamber high up in the roof, and then down again by a twisting stairway, it must have been, by the side of the great chimney in our bedroom. And there it ended. It wasn't long before we were examining the oak wardrobe; though still I said nothing of the ghost that had appeared there. It was most tantalizing to know so much, yet to be baffled by a secret of the entrance. For tap and shake and scrutinize as we would, we learnt nothing. The wall remained stolidly dumb, and the wardrobe was firm and sound except for one worm-eaten panel in the side against the chimney. But though this looked suspicious, yet it gave no clue to the quest we were on. Once I suggested knocking a hole through the wall; but Worthing pointed out that that would destroy the secrecy of the thing. So we persisted in our investigations whenever we were able to slip away for an afternoon.