"Come, boys, where are your appetites? Are we to be scared with a scrap of paper, a Latin exercise, perhaps, written by our hostess's son?" As he spoke there was a faint rasping sound as of wood passing over wood, making Denis turn sharply and put out his hand towards his sword, for it seemed to him that there was a tremulous motion in one of the panels of the wall behind where the King was seated. "What's that?" cried the latter sharply, as with a bound the lad sprang past him to stand between him and the side of the room. For answer Denis drew his sword and pointed to the panel. "Well? Why don't you speak?" "There is a door there, sir, and I saw it move." "There is no door here," cried Saint Simon, as he felt about the panel, which was perfectly rigid; and just then the hostess entered, followed by the maids bearing fresh dishes, to look wonderingly from one to the other. "Ah, mistress!" cried the King. "Is there a door there? Does one of those panels open?" "Oh yes, my lord," she replied. "It is a hatch to pass dishes through into a smaller dining chamber." And she smilingly stepped to the wall, turned a carved rose at one corner of the panel, and pressed it sidewise, showing a square opening through which a similarly furnished room could be seen. "Send away those women," said the King sternly. The hostess started, spoke to the two girls, who stepped back with the dishes, and she closed the door after them. "One of my followers saw that panel move," said the King sternly. "There is some one there." "Oh no, my lord," she cried, "The room is empty. Look." "But the panel moved," cried Denis, "and I heard a sound." "Impossible, sir," said the woman. "Then what does this mean?" said the King, taking up the scrap of paper. The woman took it, looked at it blankly, and passed it back. "I don't know," she said. "It is a foreign tongue." "Humph!" ejaculated the King. "This is strange, madam. That paper lay beneath my plate, and some one must have been watching us at our meal." "No, my lord," said the woman; "it is impossible. Nobody could have been there. If anyone has dared--" She said no more, but angrily thrust the panel back into its place and turned the oaken rose, which gave a snap as of a bolt shooting into its socket, and then, raising her hand to the diagonal corner, she turned a fellow ornament in the oaken carving, to produce another sound as of a second bolt being shot. "There," she cried, "it is quite fast now. One minute, and I will return." She hurried out of the room, and the next minute they heard the sounds of knuckles rapping the panel on the other side and directly after the loud closing and locking of a door. A few moments later, as the party stood there waiting, the woman was back at their side, to lay a large key upon the table, looking flushed and angry.