It took her another three weeks before she found this.  It was a slight projection, about as large as a button, in the inside of the chimney behind the mantel.  Pressing this and the other spring simultaneously, the bookcase on the left of the fireplace suddenly swung open three or four inches.  For a moment she stood breathless with excitement, hesitating before she entered; then she swung the bookcase open.  There, as she had expected, was a little room seven feet long by four deep; but, to her bitter disappointment, it was bare and empty.  A few scraps of paper lay on the ground, but there was no furniture, chest, or boxes in the room.  The revulsion was so great that Mrs. Conway returned into the library, threw herself into a chair, and had a long cry.  Then she went back into the room and carefully examined the pieces of paper lying on the ground.  One of them was a portion of a letter, and she recognized at once the handwriting of Mr. Tallboys.

It contained only the words:  “My dear Mr. Penfold—­In accordance with your request I send you the—­” But above was the date, which was ten days only anterior to Mr. Penfold’s death.  Mrs. Conway had no doubt that the word that should have followed the fragment was “will,” and that this was the letter that Mr. Tallboys had sent over with that document.  It was important evidence, as it showed that Mr. Penfold had been in the habit of using this place during his lifetime, and that he had entered it after he had received the will from his solicitor a few days before his death.  Why should he have entered it except to put the will in a place of security?  Where that place was she did not know, but she felt certain that it was somewhere within reach of her hand.

“If it is here it must be found,” she said resolutely; “but I won’t begin to look for it to-night.  It must be three o’clock already, and I will think the matter over thoroughly before I begin again.  It is something to have found out as much as I have.  I ought to be encouraged instead of being disappointed.”

That day she wrote to Mr. Tallboys, giving him a full account of the discovery which she had made, and inclosing the fragment of his letter.  She did not renew her search for the next two nights; for her long watchfulness and excitement had told upon her, and she felt that she needed rest before she set about the second part of the search.  She received a letter from Mr. Tallboys in reply to that she had sent him: 

“My dear Mrs. Conway:  I congratulate you most heartily upon the great success you have met with.  I own that I have never been very hopeful, for after the thorough search we made of the room I hardly thought it likely that you would succeed when we had failed; however, you have done so, and I cannot doubt that a similar success will attend your further efforts.  In a small bare room such as you describe the difficulties in the way of finding the hidden receptacle cannot be so