found themselves peering down the shaft of what appeared to be a very
ordinary well. It was circular, in shape, and had been laid, on the
inside, with a masonry of stones.

"There is water at the bottom, isn't there?" inquired the woman Spy.

"Yes," replied Hennessy. "It was never anything more than a well. Yet,
day before yesterday, one of the local guides brought me here and
insisted on telling me all about its having been an outlet of a famous
secret passage from the castle. I had some fishing tackle in my
pocket, so I rigged up a line and weight, and let it down. I satisfied
myself that there were about four feet of greenish, slimy water at
the bottom of a well. I wish you could have seen the guide's face!"

"Here come some visitors, now," nudged Hal.

Two men and four women, led by a guide, approached the place.

"This shaft looks dark and mysterious enough," began the guide, reeling
off a well learned lesson, "to be as full of historic interest and
mystery as it really is. This shaft is what is left of one of the
outlets of the famous secret passage to and from the castle."

While the new visitors crowded about, asking questions and offering
remarks, the party that Hennessy was guiding stepped into the background,
secretly enjoying the guide's buncombe.

"If people would only stop to use their good sense a bit," whispered
Hennessy, "they'd know, at once, that the shaft is only a long disused
well."