SOLVED. YA Mystery called, I think, The Secret Passage about a group of kids who discover a secret passage in an old house and the cryptic, to them, message Quien sabe. [s]

[JT]

In 1960 when I was in the sixth grade there was a book in the classroom library named, I think, The Secret Passage. I remember very few details about it, but it involved a group of kids, teens I think, who are staying (perhaps vacationing) in an old house and find a secret passage that leads them into solving a mystery. They also find the cryptic, to them, Spanish message Quien sabe, which they mispronounce as keen sabbee. It was a relatively old book, so I'm guessing it dated from the 1930s, but I don't know for sure. It was definitely not the Fergus Hume book of that name. I've searched for it, and although there seem to be a lot of books named The Secret Passage or some variation thereof, I haven't been able to find it.

[Rainbowheart]

The Secret of the Closed Gate

[JT]

From its short description The Secret of the Closed Gate certainly sounds like it's probably it. If so, about the only things I remembered correctly are it involves kids and they find the word sabe. I've ordered a used copy.

Thanks for the fast response!

[Rainbowheart]

No prob!

You can also read it online....

It was a taxi driver who had rung the bell; his car stood throbbing in the drive. He held a piece of paper in his hand. 'I have a fare lookin' for an estate called by the name of Keen Sabby,' he said. 'You acquainted with any such place in this neighborhood?'

'Just a taxi man hunting for an address. It was the Sabe place he meant,' Nancy said. She held the paper out to Aunt Alicia. 'Only the taxi man called it Sabby. We didn't know what he meant at first.'

https://archive.org/details/secretofc...

[Capn]

Was this the right book?

[Rainbowheart]

OP shelved it, so I assume so?

[Kris]

JT, I see you added The Secret of the Closed Gate by Margaret Leighton to the header/ topic title. Glad you found your book.