ripping fir-trees. What could his
father's intention be when he reached the Hall? Was it merely that he
wished to spy and prowl, or did he intend to call up the master and
enter into some discussion as to his wrongs? Or was it possible that
some blacker and more sinister design lay beneath his strange doings?
Robert thought suddenly of the razor-strop, and gasped with horror. What
had the old man been doing with that? He quickened his pace to a run,
and hurried on until he found himself at the door of the Hall.

Thank God! all was quiet there. He stood by the big silent door and
listened intently. There was nothing to be heard save the wind and the
rain. Where, then, could his father be? If he wished to enter the Hall
he would not attempt to do so by one of the windows, for had he not been
present when Raffles Haw had shown them the precautions which he had
taken? But then a sudden thought struck Robert. There was one window
which was left unguarded. Haw had been imprudent enough to tell them
so. It was the middle window of the laboratory. If he remembered it so
clearly, of course his father would remember it too. There was the point
of danger.

The moment that he had come round the corner of the building he found
that his surmise had been correct. An electric lamp burned in the
laboratory, and the silver squares of the three large windows stood out
clear and bright in the darkness. The centre one had been thrown open,
and, even as he gazed, Robert saw a dark monkey-like figure spring up
on to the sill, and vanish into the room beyond. For a moment only it
outlined itself against the brilliant light beyond, but in that moment
Robert had space to see that it was indeed his father. On tiptoe he
crossed the intervening space, and peeped in through the open window. It
was a singular spectacle which met his eyes.

There stood upon the glass table some half-dozen large ingots of gold,
which had been made the night before, but which had not been removed to
the treasure-house. On these the old man had thrown himself, as one who
enters into his rightful inheritance. He lay across the table, his arms
clasping the bars of gold, his cheek pressed against them, crooning
and muttering to himself. Under the clear, still light, amid the giant
wheels and strange engines, that one little dark figure clutching and
clinging to the ingots had in it something both weird and piteous.

For five minutes or more Robert stood in the darkness a