nce. I think I can
get into the house by a side door."

The carriage had drawn up in the shade of some overhanging beech trees
whilst they were speaking. The four men got out, and stood for a moment
in the road. The night was a rough one, as Mr. Colquhoun had said; the
wind blew in fierce but fitful gusts; the sky was covered with heavy,
scurrying clouds.

Every now and then the wind sent a great dash of rain into their faces,
it seemed as if a tempest were preparing, and the elements were about to
be let loose.

"We are like thieves," said Heron, shrugging his shoulders. "I don't
care for this style of work. I should walk boldly up to the door and
give a thundering peal with the knocker."

"You don't know Hugo as well as I do," responded Brian.

"Thank Heaven, no. Are you armed, Fane?"

"I've got a stick," said Fane, with gusto.

"And I've got a revolver. Now for the fray."

"We shall not want arms of that kind," said Brian. "If you are ready,
please follow me."

He led the way through the gates and down the drive, then turned off at
right angles and pursued his way along a narrow path, across which the
wet laurels almost touched, and had to be pushed back. They reached at
last the side entrance of which Brian had spoken. He tried the handle,
and gently shook the door; but it did not move. He tried it a second
time--with no result.

"Locked!" said Percival, significantly.

"That does not matter," responded Brian. "Look here; but do not speak."

He felt in the darkness for one of the panels of the door. Evidently he
knew that there was some hidden spring. The panel suddenly flew back,
leaving a space of two feet square, through which it was easy for Brian
to insert his hand and arm, draw back a bolt, and turn the key which had
been left in the lock. It was a door which he and Richard had known of
old. They had kept the secret, however, to themselves; and it was
possible that Hugo had never learned it. Even Mr. Colquhoun uttered a
faint inarticulate murmur of surprise.

The door was open before them, but they were still standing outside in
the wet shrubbery, their feet on the damp grass, the evergreens
trickling water in their faces, when an unexpected sound fell upon their
ears.

Somewhere, in another part of the building--probably in the front of the
house--one of the upper windows was thrown violently open. Then a
woman's voice, raised in shrill tones of fear or pain, rang out between
the fitful gus