and say,--

"If you are determined upon remaining, I cannot help it; but, when some
one, as there assuredly will, comes from the Bannerworths, here, to me,
or I shall be under the necessity of stating candidly that you are
intruding."

"Very good. As the morning air is keen, and as we now are not likely to
be as good company to each other as we were, I shall go inside the
house."

This was a proposition which the doctor did not like, but he was
compelled to submit to it; and he saw, with feelings of uneasiness, the
hangman make his way into the Hall by one of the windows.

Then Dr. Chillingworth sat down to think. Much he wondered what could be
the secret of the great desire which Varney, Marchdale, and even this
man had, all of them to be possessors of the old Hall.

That there was some powerful incentive he felt convinced, and he longed
for some conversation with the Bannerworths, or with Admiral Bell, in
order that he might state what had now taken place. That some one would
soon come to him, in order to bring fresh provisions for the day, he was
certain, and all he could do, in the interim, was, to listen to what the
hangman was about in the Hall.

Not a sound, for a considerable time, disturbed the intense stillness of
the place; but, now, suddenly, Mr. Chillingworth thought he heard a
hammering, as if some one was at work in one of the rooms of the Hall.

"What can be the meaning of that?" he said, and he was about to proceed
at once to the interior of the building, through the same window which
had enabled the hangman to gain admittance, when he heard his own name
pronounced by some one at the back of the garden fence, and upon casting
his eyes in that direction, he, to his great relief, saw the admiral and
Henry Bannerworth.

"Come round to the gate," said the doctor. "I am more glad to see you
than I can tell you just now. Do not make more noise than you can help;
but, come round to the gate at once."

They obeyed the injunction with alacrity, and when the doctor had
admitted them, the admiral said, eagerly,--

"You don't mean to tell us that he is here?"

"No, no, not Varney; but he is not the only one who has taken a great
affection for Bannerworth Hall; you may have another tenant for it, and
I believe at any price you like to name."

"Indeed!"

"Hush! creep along close to the house, and then you will not be seen.
There! do you hear that noise in the hall?"

"Why it sounds," said the admir