He even ran his fingers lightly
over the paper, up as high as he could reach; but not the slightest
crevice was perceptible. He began to doubt the evidence of his own
senses.
Unless his accursed imagination had been playing him tricks, a trap of
some kind had been opened above his head and someone had looked in at
him; yet--and his fingers were trained to such work--he was prepared
to swear that the surface of the Chinese paper covering the wall was
perfectly continuous. He drummed upon it lightly with his finger-tips,
here and there over the surface above the bed. And in this fashion he
became enlightened.
A portion, roughly a foot in height and two feet long, yielded a
slightly different note to his drumming; whereby he knew that that part
of the paper was not ATTACHED to the wall. He perceived the truth. The
trap, when closed, fitted flush with the back of the wall-paper, and
this paper (although when pasted upon the walls it showed no evidence of
the fact) must be TRANSPARENT.
From some dark place beyond, it was possible to peer in THROUGH the
rectangular patch of paper as through a window, at the occupant of the
bunk below, upon whom the shaded lamp directly poured its rays!
He examined more closely a lower part of the wall, which did not fall
within the shadow of the purple lamp-shade; for he was thinking of the
draught which had followed the opening of the trap.
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