Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1910-10-29
CHAPTER xxxI.-Continued.

The slip had said Chimney. 1t
was the only clue, and a house as
large as Sunnyside was full of them.
There was an open fireplace in my
dressing room, but none in the bed
room, and as l lay there, looking
around, I thought of something that
made me sit up suddenly. The trunk
room, just over my head, had an open
fireplace and a brick chimney, and
yet there was nothing of the kind in
my room. / got out of bed and ex-
amined the opposite wall closely.
There was apparently no f1ue, and I
knew there was none in the hall just
beneath. The house was heated by
steam, as 1 have said before. In the
living room was a huge open fireplace,
but it was on the other side.
Why did the trunkroom have both
q radiator and an open fireplace?
Architects were not usually cratic.
1t was not Is minutes before I was up
stairs, armed with a tape-measure in
lieu of foot-rule, eager to justify Mr..
Jamieson's opinion of my intelligence,
and firmly resolved not to tell him of
my suspicion until / had more than
theory to go on. The hole in the
trunkroom wall still yawned there, be-
tween the chimney and the outer wall.
/ examined it again, with no new re-
suit The space between the brick
wall and the plaster and lath one,
however, had a new significance. The
hole showed only one side of the chin
ney, and 1 determined to investigate
what lay in the space on the other
side of the mantel.
l had a blister on my palm when
at last the Ratchet went through and
fell with what sounded like the report OF
a gun to my overstrained nerves. 1 sat
on a trunk, waiting to hear Liddy fly
up the stairs, with the household be-
hind her, like the tail of a comet. But
nothing happened, and with a growing
feeling of uncanniness l set to work
charging the opening.
The result was absolutely nil. When
1 could hold a lighted candle in the
opening 1 saw precisely what 1 had
seen on the other side of the chimney
"a space between the true wall and
| the false one, possibly seven feet long
| and about three feet wide. 1t was in
| no sense of the word a secret cham
| Der, and it was evident it had not
been disturbed since the house was
| built 1t was a supreme disappoint
| ment-
1t had been Mr.. Jamieson's ides
that the hidden room, if there was
one, would be found somewhere neal
| the circular staircase. In fact 1 knew
that he had once investigated the en-
| tire length of the clothes chute, hang
ing to a rope, with this in view
| was reluctantly about to concede tina
he had been right, when my eyes fel
on the mantel and fireplace. The lat
ted had evidently never been used
1t was closed with a metal fire front
and only when the front refused t.
move, and investigation showed tina
1t was not intended to be moved, dit
my spirits revive.
1 hurried into the next room. Yes
sure enough, there was a similar man
tel and fireplace there, similarl,
closed In both rooms the Gimme,
fue extended well out from the wall
/ measured with the tape-line, m,
hands trembling so that / coul
scarcely mold it. They extended tw
feet and a half into each room, whicl
with the three feet of space betweel
the two partitions, made eight feet t
be accounted for. Eight feet in on
direction and almost seven in the otf
er-what a chimney it was,
But 1 had only located the hfdde
room I was not in 1t, and no amour
of pressing on the carving of tn
wooden mantels, no search of tn
floors for loose boards, none of tn
customary methods availed at al
That there was a means of entrance
and probably simple one, could b
certain. But what? What would
find II I did get in? Was the detec
i've right, and were the bonds an
money from the Traders bank there
Or was our whole theory wrong