On the bank not far from the castle grew a small wood, and it was
in this that Cuthbert hoped to find the passage spoken of by Gurth.
The trees and brushwood were so thick that it was apparent at once that
if the passage had ever existed it had been unused for some years.
The woodmen were obliged to chop down dozens of young saplings to make
their way up from the water toward the steeper part of the bank.
The wood was some fifty yards in length, and as it was uncertain at
which point the passage had come out, a very minute search had to be
made.
"What do you think it would be like, Cnut?" Cuthbert asked.
"Like enough to a rabbit-hole, or more likely still there would be no
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.
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