“No, sir, I don’t think you would run away.  I am sure you would not run away from fear, but I would not let them lay hands on me, until I had thought the matter well over.  You might be able to do more good to Sir Marmaduke were you free, than you could do if you were caged up with him.  He has enemies, we know, who are doing their best to ruin him, and, as you see, they are anxious that you, too, should be shut up within four walls.”

“You are right, Banks.  At any rate, I will ride back and consult Mr. Jervoise.  Besides, he ought to be warned, for he, too, may be arrested on the same charge.  How did you get away without being noticed?”

“I said that I felt ill—­and I was not speaking falsely—­at Sir Marmaduke’s arrest, and would lie down.  They are keeping a sharp lookout at the stables, and have a soldier at each door, to see that no one leaves the house, but I went out by that old passage that comes out among the ruins of the monastery.”

“I know, Banks.  My father showed it to me, three years ago.”

“I shall go back that way again, sir, and no one will know that I have left the house.  You know the trick of the sliding panel, Master Charles?”

“Yes, I know it, and if I should want to come into the house again, I will come that way, Banks.”

“Here is a purse,” the butler said.  “You may want money, sir.  Should you want more, there is a store hidden away, in the hiding place under the floor of the Priest’s Chamber, at the other end of the passage.  Do you know that?”

“I know the Priest’s Chamber of course, because you go through that to get to the long passage, but I don’t know of any special hiding place there.”

“Doubtless, Sir Marmaduke did not think it necessary to show it you then, sir, but he would have done it later on, so I do not consider that I am breaking my oath of secrecy in telling you.  You know the little narrow loophole in the corner?”

“Yes, of course.  There is no other that gives light to the room.  It is hidden from view outside by the ivy.”

“Well, sir, you count four bricks below that, and you press hard on the next, that is the fifth, then you will hear a click, then you press hard with your heel at the corner, in the angle of the flag below, and you will find the other corner rise.  Then you get hold of it and lift it up, and below there is a stone chamber, two feet long and about eighteen inches wide and deep.  It was made to conceal papers in the old days, and I believe food was always kept there, in case the chamber had to be used in haste.

“Sir Marmaduke uses it as a store place for his money.  He has laid by a good deal every year, knowing that money would be wanted when troops had to be raised.  I was with him about three weeks ago, when he put in there half the rents that had been paid in.  So, if you want money for any purpose, you will know where to find it.”

“Thank you, Banks.  It may be very useful to have such a store, now.”