sound proceeded,
they could see the form of a man slowly and cautiously emerging from it.

As far as they could judge, from the distance at which they were, that
form partook much of the appearance and the general aspect of Sir
Francis Varney, and the more they looked and noticed its movements, the
more they felt convinced that such was the fact.

"There comes your patient, doctor," said the admiral.

"Don't call him my patient," said the doctor, "if you please."

"Why you know he is; and you are, in a manner of speaking, bound to look
after him. Well, what is to be done?"

"He must not, on any account," said Dr. Chillingworth, "be allowed to
leave the place. Believe me, I have the very strongest reasons for
saying so."

"He shall not leave it then," said Henry.

Even as he spoke, Henry Bannerworth darted forward, and Sir Francis
Varney dropped from the window, out of which he had clambered, close to
his feet.

"Hold!" cried Henry, "you are my prisoner."

With the most imperturbable coolness in the world, Sir Francis Varney
turned upon him, and replied,--

"And pray, Henry Bannerworth, what have I done to provoke your wrath?"

"What have you done?--have you not, like a thief, broken into my house?
Can you ask what you have done?"

"Ay," said the vampyre, "like a thief, perchance, and yet no thief. May
I ask you, what there is to steal, in the house?"

By the time this short dialogue had been uttered, the rest of the party
had come up, and Varney was, so far as regarded numbers, a prisoner.

"Well, gentlemen," he said, with that strange contortion of countenance
which, now they all understood, arose from the fact of his having been
hanged, and restored to life again. "Well, gentlemen, now that you have
beleaguered me in such a way, may I ask you what it is about?"

"If you will step aside with me, Sir Francis Varney, for a moment," said
Dr. Chillingworth, "I will make to you a communication which will enable
you to know what it is all about."

"Oh, with pleasure," said the vampyre. "I am not ill at present; but
still, sir, I have no objection to hear what you have to say."

He stepped a few paces on one side with the doctor, while the others
waited, not without some amount of impatience for the result of the
communication. All that they could hear was, that Varney said,
suddenly--

"You are quite mistaken."

And then the doctor appeared to be insisting upon something, which the
vampyre listened to