and his brother should be put on their guard."

"Yes. I wanted to ask you about that."

And Sophy told him about the access from Chesney's window to the roof.

"Come--they had better be roused at once!" said Bellamy, turning pale.
Pale faces were the custom at Dynehurst in those days.

Sophy went with the doctor along the corridor leading to Lady Wychcote's
room. Gerald slept on the other side of the house. They went cautiously,
being careful not to speak or make any sound that might rouse the
servants on the floor above. Gaynor was left on guard by his master's
door.

But as they trod, noiseless and silent, with cautious apprehension, the
sleeping house was roused by a long-drawn, fearful shriek--then another.
The silence that followed seemed to echo with it like the air with a
clap of thunder.

Transfixed for an instant, the next both Sophy and Bellamy were running
wildly towards Lady Wychcote's room. The scream had come from it.

They tore open the door without ceremony. Lady Wychcote was sitting up
in bed, staring at the open window as though Death had appeared to her
in its embrasure. Her eyes seemed to have set in her head.

Bellamy applied restoratives. She gasped, came to herself. She grew
rigid with self-control under his hands, as though made of fine steel.
Her thin lips snapped to--then parted.

"A nightmare," she said curtly. "I thought I saw Cecil's face." Shudders
took her in spite of her grim will. She put her hand over her eyes.
"Horrible!" she muttered. "'Twas horrible! I saw him as I see you--at
the window ... his face, yet not his face ... a murderer's ...
swollen...." Then she added, curt again: "You can leave me now. I have
these disgusting dreams occasionally. I am quite over it."

Then Bellamy explained matters to her. There was no doubt that she had
really seen Cecil's face at her window. She always slept with curtains
drawn back, and shutters wide. The light from the shaded lamp which she
kept burning all night on her writing-table would have just caught his
face, had he stood on the stone ledge beneath her window and looked in.
This is what he must have done.

When she had taken in the import of Bellamy's words, Lady Wychcote said
that she, too, would rise and dress. They left her and went out to find
the stairs and upper corridors rustling with frightened servants.
Jepson, the butler, was talking in low tones with Gaynor. He came
forward as he saw Sophy and the doctor.

"I tried