The door was further secured by heavy pivoted bars extending from jamb to jamb.

An egg-and-dart molding extended all around the casing, where the inner door had once hung.

All solid, all very old-fashioned, but totally unsuggestive of any reasonable solution of the mystery I had vaguely hoped it to explain.

Was I mistaken in my theory, and must I look elsewhere for what I still honestly expected to find?
Undoubtedly; and with this decision I turned to leave the recess, when a sensation, of too peculiar a nature for me readily to understand it, caused me to stop short, and look down at my feet in an inquiring way and afterward to lift the rug on which I had been standing and take a look at the floor underneath.

It was covered with carpet, like the rest of the hall, but this did not disguise the fact that it sloped a trifle toward the outside wall.