The servants are all terrified." He struck
a match and lit the lamp. "I think we may get the fire to burn up
again," he added, throwing some logs upon the embers. "Good God, my
dear chap, how white you are! You look as if you had seen a ghost."

"So I have--several ghosts."

"The leather funnel has acted, then?"

"I wouldn't sleep near the infernal thing again for all the money you
could offer me."

Dacre chuckled.

"I expected that you would have a lively night of it," said he. "You
took it out of me in return, for that scream of yours wasn't a very
pleasant sound at two in the morning. I suppose from what you say that
you have seen the whole dreadful business."

"What dreadful business?"

"The torture of the water--the 'Extraordinary Question,' as it was
called in the genial days of 'Le Roi Soleil.' Did you stand it out to
the end?"

"No, thank God, I awoke before it really began."

"Ah! it is just as well for you. I held out till the third bucket.
Well, it is an old story, and they are all in their graves now, anyhow,
so what does it matter how they got there? I suppose that you have no
idea what it was that you have seen?"

"The torture of some criminal. She must have been a terrible
malefactor indeed if her crimes are in proportion to her penalty."

"Well, we have that small consolation," said Dacre, wrapping his
dressing-gown round him and crouching closer to the fire. "They WERE in
proportion to her penalty. That is to say, if I am correct in the
lady's identity."

"How could you possibly know her identity?"

For answer Dacre took down an old vellum-covered volume from the shelf.

"Just listen to this," said he; "it is in the French of the seventeenth
century, but I will give a rough translation as I go. You will judge
for yourself whether I have solved the riddle or not.

"'The prisoner was brought before the Grand Chambers and Tournelles of
Parliament, sitting as a court of justice, charged with the murder of
Master Dreux d'Aubray, her father, and of her two brothers, MM.
d'Aubray, one being civil lieutenant, and the other a counsellor of
Parliament. In person it seemed hard to believe that she had really
done such wicked deeds, for she was of a mild appearance, and of short
stature, with a fair skin and blue eyes. Yet the Court, having found
her guilty, condemned her to the ordinary and to the extraordinary
question in order that she might be forced to name her accomplices,
afte