peasantry have held it in awe. Hence all sorts of weird and terrible
stories have been invented and handed down, until the present age
believes them to be based upon fact."

"But, my dear friend, I actually heard the Whispers--heard them with my
own ears," Krail asserted. "I happened to be about the place that night,
trying to get a peep into the library, where Goslin and the old man
were, I believe, busy at work. But the blinds fitted too closely, so
that I couldn't see inside. The keeper and his men were, I knew, down in
the village; therefore I took a stroll towards the ruins, and, as it was
a beautiful night, I sat down in the courtyard to have a smoke. Then, of
a sudden, I heard low voices quite distinctly. They startled me, for not
until they fell upon my ears did I recall the stories told to me weeks
before."

"If Stewart or any of the under-keepers had found you prowling about the
Castle grounds at that hour they might have asked you awkward
questions," remarked Flockart.

"Oh," laughed the other, "they all know me as a visitor to the village
fond of walking exercise. I took very good care that they should all
know me, so that as few explanations as possible would be necessary. As
you well know, the secret of all my successes is that I never leave
anything to chance."

"To go peeping about outside the house and trying to took in at lighted
windows sounds a rather injudicious proceeding," his companion declared.

"Not if proper precautions are taken, as I took them. I was weeks in
that terribly dull Scotch village, but nobody suspected my real mission.
I made quite a large circle of friends at the 'Star,' who all believed
me to be a foreign ornithologist writing a book upon the birds of
Scotland. Trust me to tell people a good story."

"Well," exclaimed Flockart, after a long silence, "those Whispers are
certainly a mystery, more especially if you've actually heard them. On
two or three occasions I've spoken to Sir Henry about them. He ridicules
the idea, yet he admitted to me one evening that the voices had really
been heard. I declared that the most remarkable fact was the sudden
death of each person who had listened and heard them. It is a curious
phenomenon, which certainly should be investigated."

"The inference is that I, having listened to the ghostly voices, am
doomed to a sudden and violent end," remarked the shabby stranger quite
gloomily.

Flockart laughed. "Really, Felix, this is too funny!