Free The Misadventure of Shelrock Holmes by Anthology

Englishman continued:
    "More to the left ... to the right. . . . Stop! ... Go up. ... Good. . . . The letters are all in relief, are they not?"
    "Yes."
    "Catch hold of the letter H, and tell me whether it turns in either
    direction."
    Devanne grasped the letter H, and exclaimed:
    "Yes, it turns! A quarter of a circle to the right! How did you discover that ? . . ."
    Shears, without replying, continued:
    "Can you reach the letter R from where you stand ? Yes. . . . Move it about, as you would a bolt which you were pushing or drawing."
    Devanne moved the letter R. To his great astonishment, something became unlatched inside.
    "Just so," said Holmlock Shears. "All that you now have to do is to push your ladder to the other end; that is to say, to the end of the word THIBERMESNIL. . . . Good. . . . Now, if I am not mistaken, if things go as they should, the letter L will open like a shutter."
    With a certain solemnity, Devanne took hold of the letter L. The letter L opened, but Devanne tumbled off his ladder, for the whole section of the bookcase between the first and last letters of the word swung round upon a pivot and disclosed the opening of the tunnel.
    Holmlock Shears asked, phlegmatically:
    "Have you hurt yourself?"
    "No, no," said Devanne, scrambling to his feet. "I'm not hurt, but flurried, I admit. . . . Those moving letters. . . . that yawning tunnel . . ."
    "And what then ? Doesn't it all fit in exactly with the Sully quotation?"
    "How do you mean?"
    "Why, I'H tournoie, I'R jremit, et I'L s'ouvre . . ." l
    "But what about Louis XVI?"
    "Louis XVI was a really capable locksmith. I remember reading a Treatise on Combination-loc\s which was ascribed to him. On the part of a Thibermesnil, it would be an act of good courtiership to show his sovereign this masterpiece of mechanics. By the way of a memorandum, the king wrote down 2-6-12 — that is to say, the second, sixth, and twelfth letters of die word: H, R, L."
    "Oh, of course. ... I am beginning to understand. . . . Only, look here ... I can see how you get out of this room, but I can't see how Lupin got in; for, remember, he came from the outside."
    1 It can hardly be necessary to explain to modern English readers that, in French, the letter H is pronounced hache, an ax; R, air, the air; and L, aile, a wing.— TRANSLATOR'S NOTE.
    Holmlock Shears lit the lantern, and entered the underground passage.
    "Look, you can see the whole mechanism here, like the works of a watch, and all the letters are reversed. Lupin, therefore, had only to move them from this side of the wall."
    "What proof have you?"
    "What proof? Look at this splash of oil. He even foresaw that the wheels would need greasing," said Shears, not without admiration.
    "Then he knew the other outlet?"
    "Just as I know it. Follow me."
    "Into the underground passage?"
    "Are you afraid?"
    "No; but are you sure you can find your way?"
    "I'll find it with my eyes shut."
    They first went down twelve steps, then twelve more, and again twice twelve more. Then they passed through a long tunnel whose brick walls showed traces of successive restorations, and oozed, in places, with moisture. The ground underfoot was damp.
    "We are passing under the pond," said Devanne, who felt far from comfortable.
    The tunnel ended in a flight of twelve steps, followed by three other flights of twelve steps each, which they climbed with difficulty, and they emerged in a small hollow hewn out of the solid rock. The way did not go any farther.
    "Hang it all!" muttered Holmlock Shears. "Nothing but bare walls. This is troublesome."
    "Suppose we go back," suggested Devanne, "for I don't see the use of learning any more. I have seen all I want to."
    But on raising his eyes the Englishman gave a sigh of relief: above their heads the same mechanism was repeated as at the entrance. He had only to work the three letters. A block of granite turned on a pivot. On the other side it formed Duke Hollo's tombstone, carved with the twelve letters in