slightest sound. It was a long time before the bolt moved, but to his
intense gratification it did move at last, and Henley took a fresh
grip upon his hinge. Backward and forward he worked his lever, and
with each turn the old bolt slipped back a little. At last he could
see the end of it, and then it was clear of the frame entirely. He
had expected no difficulty in opening the door when the hinge was
once slipped, but to his surprise it was still immovable. He pulled
and tugged and pushed, but it would not budge; then suddenly, just as
he was about to give up, it came tumbling down upon him, so that he
was barely able to save it from falling against the stairs with a
terrible crash, but fortunately caught it upon his shoulder, and
lowered it to the floor without a sound. Imagine his surprise in
going to what he now believed to be the open portal, to find that the
doorway had been bricked up from within, and that the door itself had
simply been the back of a solid wall. Naturally, he was disappointed
at finding himself no nearer the inner chamber than before. A careful
examination of the masonry showed that the work of bricking up the
entrance had undoubtedly been done from the other side, and after the
door had been closed and bolted. This was evidenced from the fact
that there was no mortar next the door, against the smooth inner
surface of which the bricks had been closely laid. Henley worked his
hinge between some of the looser joints, and found, just as he
expected, that the mortar had been laid from within. By degrees he
managed to wedge one of the bricks out of its place, and then pulled
it bodily from the wall. The inner surface was plastered over. He
tried another, which he got out more easily, and it told the same
tale. Then he went to work in earnest, and had soon dug a hole large
enough to admit his body. Leaning over into the aperture, with his
candle at arm's length, the place looked dark and empty, with faint
masses of lighter shadow. Then, with a certain indescribable awe,