"You are saved," she said; "thank God! I tried all I could to stop the
wheel. See, I am drenched to the skin; I could not manage it. But at
least I locked Grannie up. She's in the kitchen, sound asleep. She drank
a lot of gin."

"Where were you all day yesterday?" I asked.

"Locked up in a room in the further tower, but I managed to squeeze
through the window, although it half killed me. I knew if you stayed
that they would try it on to-night. Thank God you are saved."

"Well, don't keep me now," I said; "I have been saved as by a miracle.
You are a good girl; I am much obliged to you. You must tell me another
time how you manage to live through all these horrors."

"Ain't I all but mad?" was her pathetic reply. "Oh, my God, what I
suffer!" She pressed her hand to her face; the look in her eyes was
terrible. But I could not wait now to talk to her further. I hastily
left the place.

How I reached Harkhurst I can never tell, but early in the morning I
found myself there. I went straight to Dr. Stanmore's house, and having
got him up, I communicated my story. He and I together immediately
visited the superintendent of police. Having told my exciting tale, we
took a trap and all three returned to the Castle Inn. We were back there
before eight o'clock on the following morning. But as the police officer
expected, the place was empty. Bindloss had been rescued from the dark
closet, and he and his wife and the girl Liz had all flown. The doctor,
the police officer, and I, all went up to the circular room. We then
descended to the basement, and after a careful examination we discovered
a low door, through which we crept; we then found ourselves in a dark
vault, which was full of machinery. By the light of a lantern we
examined it. Here we saw an explanation of the whole trick. The shaft of
the mill-wheel which was let through the wall of the tower was
_continuous as the axle of a vertical cogged wheel_, and by a
multiplication action turned a large horizontal wheel into which a
vertical shaft descended. This shaft was let into the centre of four
crossbeams, supporting the floor of the room in which I had slept. All
round the circular edge of the floor was a steel rim which turned in a
circular socket. It needed but a touch to set this hideous apparatus in
motion.

The police immediately started in pursuit of Bindloss, and I returned to
London. That evening Edgcombe and I visited Dr. Miles Gordon.
Hard-headed old physi