hole whatever. We must look for moss and greenery, for it is likely that
such would have been planted, so as to conceal the door from any
passer-by, while yet allowing a party from inside to cut their way
through it without difficulty."

After a search of two hours, Cnut decided that the only place in the
copse in which it was likely that the entrance to a passage could be
hidden, was a spot where the ground was covered thickly with ivy and
trailing plants.

"It looks level enough with the rest," Cuthbert said.

"Ay, lad, but we know not what lies behind this thick screen of ivy.
Thrust in that staff."

One of the woodmen began to probe with the end of a staff among the ivy.
For some time he was met by the solid ground, but presently the butt of
the staff went through suddenly, pitching him on his head, amidst a
suppressed laugh from his comrades.

"Here it is, if anywhere," said Cnut, and with their billhooks they at
once began to clear away the thickly grown creepers.

Five minutes' work was sufficient to show a narrow cut, some two feet
wide, in the hill side, at the end of which stood a low door.

"Here it is," said Cnut, with triumph, "and the castle is ours. Thanks,
Cuthbert, for your thought and intelligence. It has not been used lately,
that is clear," he went on. "These creepers have not been moved for
years. Shall we go and tell the earl of our discovery? What think you,