Edgar stooped down and pressed with his finger on a round insignificant discolouration of the stone.

Then he stood up again.
"You will breathe no word of this passage, Major Gaydon," said he.

"The house was built a century ago when Rome was more troubled than it is to-day, but the passage was never more useful than now.

Men from England, whose names it would astonish you to know, have trodden these steps on a secret visit to the King.

Ah!" From the wall before their faces a great slab of the size of a door sank noiselessly down and disclosed a wooden panel.