“Oh, we’ll be all right,” Roger said easily. “Please don’t bother about us.” Jefferson glanced round. “Looking for a book?” he asked. “No,” said Roger quickly. “As a matter of fact, I was studying this overmantel. I’m rather interested in that sort of thing—carving, and panelling, and old houses. This is really rather a wonderful room. What’s the date, do you know? Early Jacobean, I should say.” “Somewhere about that,” Jefferson said indifferently. “I don’t know the actual date, I’m afraid.” “Very interesting period,” Roger commented. “And there’s usually a priest-hole or something like that in houses built at that time. Anything of the sort here? There ought to be, you know.” “Can’t say, I’m afraid,” Jefferson replied, a little impatiently. “Never heard of one, at any rate. Well, I must be getting along.” As the door closed behind him, Roger turned to Alec. “I didn’t expect anything, but I thought I might as well try it. He didn’t give anything away, though, whether he knew or not. On the whole, I should say that he didn’t know.” “Why?” “He was far too off-hand to be lying. If he wanted to put us off, he’d have elaborated somewhat, I fancy. Well, if we can’t find our secret door, we must try other means of providing an exit for our man. That leaves us with one door and three windows. We’ll try the door first.” The door proved to be a massive piece of wood, with a large and efficient lock. Except where the socket in the lintel had been torn away in the efforts to force an entrance, it was still undamaged. “Well, that’s out of the question, at any rate,” Roger said with decision. “I don’t see how anybody could possibly have got out through that and left it locked on the inside, with the key still in the lock. It might have been done with a pair of pliers, if the end of the key projected beyond the lock on the other side. But it doesn’t; so that’s out of the question. French windows next.” These were of the ordinary pattern, with a handle which shot a bolt simultaneously at the top and bottom. In addition there were small brass bolts at the bottom and top, both of which had been fastened when the window was opened that morning. “It looks out of the question to me,” Roger muttered. “It _is_ out of the question. Even if he had been able to turn the handle (which he couldn’t possibly have done), he couldn’t have shot the bolts as well.” “I’m blessed if he could,” said Alec with conviction. Roger turned away. “Then that leaves these two windows. I don’t see how anyone could have left this little lattice one closed behind him. What about the sash one? That looks more hopeful.” He climbed up on the window seat and examined the fastening attentively. “Any luck?” asked Alec.