Free The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken Page A

us try it at once.’
    The mantel was large, and beautifully carved from some foreign stone with a grey, satiny surface. It extended for several feet on either side of the fireplace to form two wide panels on which were carved deer with elaborately branching antlers. The children ran to these and began fingering the antlers and trying to move them. Suddenly Sylvia gave an exclamation – as she pushed the deer’s head to one side the whole panel slid away into the wall, leaving a dark aperture like a low, narrow doorway.
    ‘You’ve found it!’ breathed Bonnie. ‘Oh, what fun this is! Let us go in at once and see where it leads. Sylvia, you are the cleverest creature in the world, and I do not know what I should have done if you had not been here to keep me company. I could not have borne it!’
    She was about to dart into the hole when the more prudent Sylvia said, ‘Should we not take lighted candles? I have heard that the air in this kind of disused passage is sometimes very foul and will put out a flame. If we had candles we should be warned in time.’
    ‘Very true! I did not think.’ Bonnie ran to a cupboard which held wax tapers in long silver holders and brought two each, which they kindled at the fire. Then they slipped cautiously through the narrow opening, Bonnie leading the way.
    “We had better shut the panel behind us,’ she said. ‘Only imagine if Miss Slighcarp should come into the schoolroom and find it open!’
    ‘What if we cannot open it again from the inside?’
    ‘Perhaps it will be possible to leave just a crack.’
    Unfortunately the panel proved to be on some sort of spring. As soon as Sylvia touched it, it rolled smoothly shut. A small plaster knob seemed intended to open it from the inside, but when Bonnie rather impatiently pressed this, it crumbled away in her hand.
    ‘How vexatious!’ she said.
    Sylvia was alarmed at the thought that they might have immured themselves for life, but Bonnie whispered stoutly:
    ‘Never mind! The passage must come out somewhere, and if we are shut up, at least it is no worse than being shut up by Miss Slighcarp.’
    They tiptoed along, through thick, shuffling dust.
    The passage was exceedingly narrow, and presently led them down a flight of steep steps. It was not pitch dark; a tiny hole let in a glimmer of daylight, and, placing her eye to these holes, Bonnie was able to discover their whereabouts.
    ‘Now we are behind the Great Hall, I can see the coats of arms. This is the silver-gilt ante-room. Now we are looking into the armoury, those are gun-barrels. Imagine this passage having been here all this rime and my never knowing of it! Oh, how I wish Papa and Mamma were at home! What famous times we should have, jumping out and surprising them! And we should discover a whole lot of secrets by overhearing people’s private conversations.’
    ‘Would that be honourable?’ Sylvia doubtfully whispered.
    ‘Perhaps not with Papa and Mamma, but it would be quite another matter with Miss Slighcarp. I mean to listen to
her
all I can!’
    They soon had an opportunity to do so, for the next peep-hole looked into the library, and when Bonnie put her eye to it she saw the governess in close consultation with Mr Grimshaw. They were at the far end of the large room, and at first out of earshot, but they soon moved nearer to the unseen watchers.
    ‘Poke up the fire, Josiah,’ said Miss Slighcarp, who was studying a large parchment. ‘This must be burnt at once, now that we have succeeded in finding it.’ The children heard Mr Grimshaw stirring up the logs, and realized that they must be standing beside the fireplace and that their spyhole was probably concealed in the chimneypiece. It was possible that there was another opening panel, similar to that in the schoolroom, but they were careful not to try pressing any projections, having wish to be brought suddenly face to face with their enemies.
    ‘Take the bellows and blow it into a blaze,’ Miss Slighcarp