The Mystery of the Hidden Room

by Marion Harvey

  CHAPTER XVIII

  THE SECRET ENTRANCE

  When Jenkins arrived with the keys, McKelvie looked them overcritically, selected a couple, and tried them on the door. The first wastoo large, but the second turned the trick. Cautioning us to stoop toavoid the shelves, McKelvie pushed open the back of the safe, whichswung away from him into the darkness beyond. With the flash to guidehim he stepped through the opening, then beckoned us to follow him.Though it was too dark to see, I knew I was in a room of some sort, forI felt the velvet softness of a carpet beneath my feet, and I alsotripped over some article of furniture. By this time McKelvie hadlocated the light and I saw that my room was really an alcove fitted upwith a luxurious divan heaped high with pillows, beside which stood asmall smoking-stand. But ornate and sumptuous as the alcove was I shouldnot personally have cared for it, since the atmosphere was close andsmoke-laden and there was no means of letting in the light of day.

  McKelvie glanced hastily about and then striding to the divan he bentdown and sniffed at it critically. Instantly I imitated him. To myamazement the same fragrance clung to the Persian cover of the couchthat I had detected on the blood-stained handkerchief. I smelled itagain to make sure and then as my memory still played me false I turnedto ask McKelvie what it was. He was trying his key in the lock of a doorat the rear of the room, and if he heard my question he failed to replyto it.

  With less difficulty this time he unlocked this second door, which swunginwards and stood at the head of a flight of rather steep and darkstairs. As before, McKelvie preceded Jenkins and myself, but we kept asclose as possible to him that his flash might guide us as well. At thebottom of the steps was another door of similar make, which also openedinwards, and to my astonishment it gave exit onto the garden at the sideof the house between the first study window and the corner. Soskillfully had it been cut in the masonry, however, that only oneinitiated into the secret of the entrance would have known it was there.

  McKelvie examined the ground around the door and as at this point alsothe cement walk reached clear to the wall, I wondered what he hoped todiscover. Whatever it was, his scrutiny satisfied him, for he stood upwith a smile and applied his lens to the key-hole of the door. Then henodded his head in a contented manner and remarked that we had betterreturn to the study. I noticed that he locked all the doors scrupulouslybehind him, leaving the secret entrance exactly as he had found it, evento replacing the round disk which counterfeited the knot-hole.

  Once in the room he knelt down and examined minutely the dial of thesafe.

  "Interesting and unique," he commented. "Look here, Mr. Davies!" Hepointed to the inside of the door, and I noticed to my astonishment thatthe dial was duplicated within. "Do you get the significance?" he askedquickly.

  "Why, that safe can be opened or closed by combination from the insideas well as the outside," I hazarded.

  "Naturally, to be of any use as an entrance it would have to be capableof being opened from the inside," he said caustically. "No, what I meantwas this. Supposing we want to lock the safe. Give me a combination."

  "I gave him 'Darwin,' the first word that occurred to me, for it was oneof those old style safes with the six-letter combination. He twirled theknob of the dial on the outside and pointed as he did so to the inside.Just as the inside handle of a door will revolve when the outer one isturned, so the inner knob of the dial duplicated the revolutions of theouter.

  "Now, don't you see that in order to use this entrance it is necessaryto know what combination was used to lock the safe from the study andvice versa?" he questioned.

  "Yes, that's plain enough. To use the entrance the criminal had to knowthe combination. Well, what of it? A clever man would hardly be balkedby so small a thing."

  "You still don't get what I'm driving at," he returned. "I'll try toexplain. You have arrived at the conclusion that I held a while ago;namely, that the criminal came in and went out by the secret entrance.Am I right?"

  "Yes, that is my opinion."

  "Now we come to my point," he said, rising and beginning to pace theroom. "If the criminal entered by the safe, he must have been cognizantof three things: first, that there was such an entrance; secondly, thatthree of the doors were opened by a key of a certain size and make;thirdly, that the safe door was unlocked by a certain combination, thatcombination being the one which Philip Darwin himself had used. Thatthe criminal should know of one, or perhaps of two of these facts, yes.But that he should be aware of all three of them seems incredible!"

  "Why incredible?" I objected. "He may have known of the entrance. Hecould easily then take an impression of the outer lock and have a keymade, and Philip Darwin himself may have revealed the combination tohim."

  "Very good, but not carried quite far enough," he said with hisquizzical smile. "Before I show you where you are at fault, answer me aquestion. How do you suppose that entrance came to be there so veryhandy for the criminal's purpose?"

  "I presume it was built with the house," I answered.

  "Precisely. When?"

  "Almost a hundred years ago--1830, to be exact."

  "Exactly, and old Elias Darwin, the great-grandfather of Philip, who wasa firm believer in the established order of affairs, modeled his home inthe country (for this stretch of land was country then) on that whichwas built by his ancestors in pre-revolutionary days, secret entranceand all; for, of course, in those times secret entrances wereindispensable for the concealment of friends, whether Tories or Whigs."

  "Where did you learn all this?" I asked in amazement.

  "I have a book home which details the histories of various mansions inNew York," he replied.

  "That accounts for the entrance. But what about the safe?" I continued.

  "The safe is decidedly more recent. Doubtless the secret entrance hadbeen blocked up, if it was ever cut through, and no one knew of itsexistence until Philip Darwin stumbled on the knowledge. I looked up thefamily history of the Darwins this morning while I was awaiting yourarrival. Who's Who describes Mr. Frank Darwin, the father, as havingbeen a strait-laced, Puritanical man, and you yourself know what the sonwas. Can't you imagine the clash between them?"

  In view of Mr. Trenton's story concerning Dick's mother I could wellbelieve that father and son had not agreed.

  "In 1906 there is record that Frank Darwin went to Europe for a year. Ofcourse, this is mere conjecture, but it is reasonable to suppose thatPhilip, who was then twenty-one, took the occasion to have the safebuilt, and the secret entrance unblocked."

  "Mason should know," I said.

  "I don't think so, or he would have mentioned it at the inquest.However, there is no harm in questioning him. Go and get him, Jenkins."

  When Mason stood before us McKelvie said quietly, though his eyessparkled: "You testified that you had been with the Darwin family thirtyyears. Did you remain in the house when Mr. Frank Darwin went to Europein 1906?"

  "Yes, sir. I remained as caretaker."

  "Then you can tell us when that safe was built?"

  "Yes, sir. It was that same year, sir. Mr. Phil complained he had noprivate safe and his father told him to have one built while he wasgone. He chose that place, sir, because he liked the study. His fatherused the den upstairs."

  "Why did he build such a large safe?"

  "I don't know, sir. He sent me away to visit some of my folks, sir,while it was being built. He told his father it was to hold his fortune,sir."

  McKelvie looked across at me with a triumphant expression which said asplainly as words, "Notice how accurately I deduced the truth," but hisvoice was subdued enough as he continued his questions.

  "He did not get along with his father, I understand?"

  "No, sir. They had different ideas on every subject, sir."

  "Why didn't Philip Darwin live at his club then, when he came of age?"McKelvie inquired.

  "Because his father told him, sir, that if he left the house it would befor good, and not one penny of his money would he get, sir. Mr. Philknew th
at his father always carried out his threats, sir."

  "That is all, Mason."

  "Yes, sir."

  The moment the door closed behind the old butler McKelvie said, with asmile, "Just as I thought. And what came in handy when his father wasalive was doubly useful after his marriage. And thus we come back to theoriginal discussion, whether the criminal would know the three necessaryfacts to enter by the safe."

  "A member of the family might," I said.

  "Yes, a member of the family. Lee, for instance, or even Orton mightdiscover that there was such a passage and secure a key to it. Wouldeither of them know the combination?"

  "Orton was Darwin's private secretary."

  "As far as his business down-town went, but not his secretary, as far ashis personal affairs were concerned. Besides, recall Mason's testimony.He was surprised to find Orton in the study because Darwin always keptit religiously locked, to preserve his secret, of course. Then, too,Orton was Darwin's creature and, therefore, he would be doubly carefulnot to place himself in the fellow's power. He evidently considered hewas running no risk, since he let Orton into the study that night.Besides, if you did not want anyone prying into your safe, whatprecaution would you take to prevent it?"

  "I'd change the combination frequently."

  "Exactly; and there you have an answer to my problem. Granted that thecriminal knew the first two facts, was he going to depend on acombination that might be changed five minutes before he wished to usethe entrance? No, no, we're dealing with a person too clever not toforesee that contingency. Besides, as far as I could detect, no one hasrecently taken an impression of the outer lock."

  "Then we get back where we started and the entrance is of no value to usat all," I pointed out.

  "You jump back too far. It merely shows that the criminal did not enterby the safe. That he left that way is proved by the fact that hevanished from the study without using door or windows, and that he veryevidently took Darwin's key with him."

  "But--the combination?"

  "The safe was open, for Darwin had just removed the will from it. Evenif it had been closed, a clever man could find an excuse for making hisvictim open the safe. Once inside any combination of six letters wouldclose the door effectually against intruders."

  "I suppose you are right, but how did he get in then?"

  "Darwin let him in himself, either through the window or the door. Mostprobably through the window, since you would have otherwise heard stepsin the hall. Recall Orton's testimony. He went to the garage to followthe maid. When he returned he heard voices in the study."

  "And when he went in at eleven-thirty, Philip Darwin was alone," Iremarked with a smile.

  "Yes, to be sure, Philip Darwin was alone," he repeated, crestfallen.