“Then I think you need only mention to him that you saw his old lady of the night before. Hicks is a good fellow enough, but there are times when he would sell his soul to purchase a sensation for his paper. It is just like the Queen to have made this midnight expedition, but you needn’t--I don’t want----” “Oh, I understand,” said Mansfield hastily. “He shall never hear about it from me.” “And now, Mansfield, we will make a searching investigation of the walls of the passage. I want to find that secret door through which the ladies came and went, and then we will pay them a visit.” Mr Hicks, returning at this moment from conferring with the sheikh on the subject of a change of food for the party, was duly informed of the reappearance of his ghost, and joined with extreme zeal in the hunt for the door, although a close observer might have perceived that when his face was turned away from the others it underwent a series of extraordinary contortions, suggestive of suppressed mirth. For some time the search was fruitless, the smooth surface of the rock on both sides of the passage displaying no indication of any joint or crack, even when examined minutely with the aid of a lamp. “Mansfield,” said Cyril at last, “lie down where you were last night, and tell me exactly how far the lady had got when she disappeared.” Mansfield obeyed, and was able to indicate the spot with tolerable precision, by estimating its distance from the edge of the curtain. “Now, Hicks,” said Cyril, “the lamp here, please. I think we may be pretty sure that the door is in the left-hand wall, as that is the side on which the hill is, and I should imagine we shall find the spring two or three feet either to the right or the left of the point at which the lady vanished.” He began to test the wall by pressing it carefully with his fingers, keeping his left hand a few inches higher than his right, and before very long Mr Hicks gave a shout. “You’ve hit it, Count! I saw something give that time, and here’s a break in the wall ahead of you. Guess you’d better let me help you shove.” But the stone door moved so easily upon its pivot that this was unnecessary. It swung open without the slightest sound, revealing the foot of a flight of steps cut in the rock. “Now this is what I call real thoughtful of the Lady Zenobia,” said Mr Hicks. “If she found it necessary to assist a friend into the next world, there was no need to have corpses lying around upstairs. She could plant them out in her lot down here quite comfortably, and no one the wiser.” “Now,” said Cyril, panting a little, “you and I will make a voyage of discovery, Mansfield. Do you know, Hicks, I think your nocturnal visitor must be an old acquaintance of mine, Baroness von Hilfenstein? I needn’t tell you in whose household she is, and you won’t be surprised to hear that I intend to make a call on her.” “You don’t calculate to leave me out of the party, Count, I hope?”