The midnight searches of Chimneys’ council chamber

The midnight searches of Chimneys’ council chamber are repeated clandestine attempts to find something concealed in the room where Prince Michael was killed. Their importance lies in how they transform a murder investigation into a search for a hidden secret: an interrupted intrusion leaves Bill Eversleigh and Virginia Revel with fragments to interpret, while a later attempt brings Anthony Cade and Superintendent Battle into the same room and exposes the intruder’s method. The chamber’s armor, panelling, darkened lights, and open window become clues to an operation whose purpose is initially uncertain.

The First Intrusion

Bill and Virginia approach the massive oak door after noticing a light through its keyhole. Looking inside, Bill can make out two figures beside the wall beneath a Holbein portrait, with a torch directed at work on a suit of armor. The darkness and their restricted view prevent him from identifying the people involved or exactly what they are doing. One figure crosses his narrow line of sight, but the glimpse offers no reliable identification.

They enter when the door yields. A man stands on a chair, tapping the panelling beneath the picture, his back toward them. Bill tells Virginia to go and rushes at the intruder as she tries the light switch. The bulbs have been removed, so the room remains dark; the torch falls and goes out during the ensuing struggle. Unable to tell who else may be present or who has the advantage, Virginia stays at the doorway to block an escape and calls for help. The attempted intervention therefore ends without a clear identification or an explanation of the search.

When light is restored, the room bears the marks of a violent disturbance: broken china, splintered chairs, and fragments of armor litter the floor. The bulbs, removed from their fittings and arranged along the wall, explain why Virginia’s switch failed. The physical disorder records the struggle, but it does not disclose what the intruders hoped to find or whether they succeeded.

Interpreting the Search

At a meeting on the lake, Virginia and Bill recount the previous night’s events to Anthony. Bill is uneasy about bringing Anthony into their confidential discussion, but Virginia offers a clear interpretation: burglary does not account for what they saw. Anthony develops her suspicion into two possible lines of inquiry. The intruders had examined the suits of armor, yet the tapping on the panelling suggests they may also have been testing the wall for a concealed passage or another hidden space.

The contrast between the intruders’ careful examination and the room’s subsequent wreckage distinguishes the search from an ordinary attempt to steal whatever is readily visible. Their attention is directed toward specific possible hiding places, while the darkness and removed bulbs impede anyone who might interrupt them. At this stage, however, the purpose remains a deduction rather than a confirmed discovery: the observers have seen the method, not the object being sought.

The Search Resumes

Anthony expects another attempt and arranges with Virginia and Bill to watch the chamber. They wait through the night, each positioned to observe a different part of the room. The anticipated entry does not come from the door. After a footstep and scratching outside, a man opens a window and steps across the sill. He pauses, surveys the chamber with a torch, and proceeds to the section of panelling examined on the earlier night.

Anthony’s sneeze gives away the watchers. He immediately turns on his torch and tackles the stranger; Virginia switches on the lights, which work this time, and Bill moves to help. Anthony turns the captured man over and recognizes him as the dark-bearded stranger from the Cricketers. Superintendent Battle is standing in the open doorway, present at the moment of capture. The renewed attempt thus converts the watchers’ theory into an encounter with an identifiable suspect, although his presence and actions alone do not yet establish what he knows about the hidden object.

The Search Explained

M. Lemoine later recounts what he observed from the terrace. He had come to watch the chamber because he believed the secret was connected to the room in which Prince Michael had been killed. Seeing torchlight inside, he tried the middle window and found it unlatched; he could not tell whether the intruder had entered that way earlier or had left it unfastened deliberately. He slipped into the room and watched from a concealed position.

According to M. Lemoine, the searcher dismantled the two suits of armor piece by piece. Finding nothing there, he tapped the panelling beneath the picture. M. Lemoine did not learn what the man intended to do next, because Bill and Virginia interrupted the search. When the intruder extinguished his torch, M. Lemoine tried to escape through the window without revealing himself; he collided with the others in the darkness and fled outside, where Bill pursued him under a mistaken identification. His account clarifies the sequence behind the confused first encounter and confirms that the armor and panelling were deliberate targets.

Consequences and Significance

The two intrusions establish a recurring pattern: entry into the council chamber under cover of darkness, inspection of the armor, and attention to the panelling beneath the Holbein portrait. The first episode leaves the household with a damaged room and an unresolved puzzle; the second gives the watchers a chance to catch a searcher and lets M. Lemoine explain how he came to be involved. Together, the episodes make the room’s architecture and the investigators’ limited sight central to the mystery, while keeping the object of the search undisclosed at this point.

The searches also complicate the chamber’s meaning. It is at once the scene of Prince Michael’s murder and a place where unknown visitors believe something else may be concealed. That overlap prompts M. Lemoine’s attention and shapes the household’s investigation, but the evidence from the nighttime episodes supports a distinction between seeing where the searchers look and knowing what they seek. Their repeated focus narrows the question; it does not, by itself, answer it.