Page:The Clue of the Twisted Candle (1916).djvu/168

It was not the first visit she had made to the big underground room with its vaulted roof and its great ranges—which were seldom used nowadays, for Kara gave no dinners.

The maid—who was also cook—rose up as the girl entered.

"It's a sight for sore eyes to see you in my kitchen, miss," she smiled.

"I'm afraid you're rather lonely, Mrs. Beale," said the girl sympathetically.

"Lonely, miss!" cried the maid. "I fairly get the creeps sitting here hour after hour. It's that door that gives me the hump!"

She pointed to the far end of the kitchen to a soiled looking door of unpainted wood.

"That's Mr. Kara's wine cellar—nobody's been in it but him. I know he goes in sometimes because I tried a dodge that my brother—who's a policeman—taught me. I stretched a bit of white cotton across it an' it was broke the next morning."

"Mr. Kara keeps some of his private papers in