“Now, Brother Emmanuel, let us show you all,” said Edred eagerly; “for methinks it must be very few visits we must pay thee, and those at dead of night.  For I much mistake me if we be not closely watched by some spy of the prior’s these next days, and it will not do for any to think we have hidden haunts of our own.”

“Nay, nay, my children; ye must not run into peril for me.  Far rather would I—­”

“I know—­I know!” cried Edred.  “But in truth thou needst not fear to rest here.  This is the lost chamber, the secret of which had perished for well nigh a generation, till kindly fortune made it known to us.  All men think that the chamber lay in the portion of Chad that was destroyed in the late wars.  None dream it still exists.  But here it is, and Bertram has made out little by little exactly where it lies, and I will tell it thee.

“This portion at the lower and darker end is jammed in betwixt the ceiled roof of the great gun room and that attic chamber where the dry roots are stored away in the winter months before the frost binds them into the ground.  None enter that attic in the summertide save rats and mice, and though there may be many passing to and fro in the gun room, no sound from here can penetrate there; for we have tried times and again, when there has been none by to hear, if we can make each other hear sounds from either place.  From the gun room noise will, if very great, penetrate hither; but nothing thou canst do will make them below hear thee.

“Then this wider and lighter and loftier portion, where the light comes in, is but a space filched away from the roofs and leads, and jammed in in such a fashion that it would defy a magician to find it from without.  We tried days and days and could not do it, and never did, albeit we can climb like cats and had an inkling where it was—­until we put Julian within to shout aloud and guide us by his voice.  It is so placed that none can get really nigh to those places where the cracks are made to let in the light and air.  Thou needst not fear, though all the monks in the priory come to search, that this hiding place will ever be found.”

The monk looked around the narrow chamber and drew an involuntary breath of relief.  If indeed this thing were so, if indeed he might lie hidden from discovery and defy the most stringent search, might it not be a God-appointed means of salvation for him?  Might he not be doing wrong in insisting upon falling into the hands of men?  Would it indeed be possible for him to secrete himself without bringing down upon others the wrath he himself would escape?

Whilst he stood thus debating with himself, the boys pulled him by the sleeve and spoke eagerly, though involuntarily in low tones.