an by slowness. What's the high bank running along on the
right here?"

"Dat's a railway bankment," said Von Baumser. "See de posts and de
little red lights over yonder."

"So it is. The wall seems to me to be lower here. What's this dark
thing? Hullo, here's a door lading into the grounds."

"It is locked though."

"Give me a hoist here," Tom said imploringly. "Don't throw a minute
away. You can't tell what may be going on inside. At this very moment
for all we know they may be plotting her murder."

"He has right," said Von Baumser. "We shall await here until we hear
from you. Help him, my vriends--shove him up!"

Tom caught the coping of the wall, although the broken glass cut deeply
into his hands. With a great heave he swung himself up, and was soon
astride upon the top.

"Here's the whistle," said the major, standing on tiptoe to reach a
downstretched hand. "If you want us, give a good blow at it. We'll be
with you in a brace of shakes. If we can't get over the wall we'll have
the door down. Divil a fear but we'll be there!"

Tom was in the act of letting himself drop into the wood, when suddenly
the watchers below saw him crouch down upon the wall, and lie
motionless, as though listening intently.

"Hush!" he whispered, leaning over. "Some one is coming through the
wood."

The wind had died away and the storm subsided. Even from the lane they
could hear the sound of feet, and of muffled voices inside the grounds.
They all crouched down in the shadow of the wall. Tom lay flat upon the
glass-studded coping, and no one looking from below could distinguish
him from the wall itself.

The voices and the footsteps sounded louder and louder, until they were
just at the other side of the boundary. They seemed to come from
several people walking slowly and heavily. There was the shrill rasping
of a key, and the wooden door swung back on its rusty hinges, while
three dark figures passed out who appeared to bear some burden between
them. The party in the shadow crouched closer still, and peered through
the darkness with eager, anxious eyes. They could discern little save
the vague outlines of the moving men, and yet as they gazed at them an
unaccountable and overpowering horror crept into the hearts of every one
of them. They breathed the atmosphere of death.

The new-comers tramped across the road, and, pushing through the thin
hedge, ascended the railway embankment upon the other side.