al safety, there presently rose in some far-off place a smothered
repetition of that same tap, tap, tap which had sent the shudders over
me upon my sudden entrance into the house early in the morning. Heard
now, it caused me to tremble in a way I had not supposed possible to one
of my hardy nature, and while with this recognition of my feminine
susceptibility to impressions there came a certain pride in the
stanchness of purpose which led me to restrain all acknowledgment of
fear, by any recourse to my whistle, I was more than glad when even this
sound ceased, and I had only to expect the swishing noise of a skirt
down the hall, and that stealthy locking of the door of the room I had
taken the precaution of leaving.

It came sooner than I expected, came just in the way it had previously
done, only that the person paused a moment to listen before hastening
back. The silence within must have satisfied her, for I heard a low sigh
like that of relief, before the steps took themselves back. That they
would turn my way gave me a momentary concern, but I had too completely
lulled my young hostesses' suspicions, or (let me be faithful to all the
possibilities of the case) they had put too much confidence in the
powder with which they had seasoned my nightly cup of tea, for them to
doubt that I was soundly asleep in my own quarters.

Three minutes later I followed those steps as far down the corridor as I
dared to go. For, since my last appearance in it, a candle had been lit
in the main hall, and faint as was its glimmer, it was still a glimmer
into the circle of which I felt it would be foolhardiness for me to
step. At some twenty paces, then, from the opening, I paused and gave
myself up to listening. Alas, there was plenty now for me to hear.

You have heard the sound; we all have heard the sound, but few of us in
such a desolate structure and at the hour and under the influences of
midnight! The measured tread of men struggling under a heavy weight, and
that weight--how well I knew it! as well as if I had seen it, as I
really did in my imagination.

They advanced from the adjoining corridor, from the room I had as yet
found no opportunity of entering, and they approached surely and slowly
the main hall near which I was standing in such a position as rendered
it impossible for me to see anything if they took the direct course to
the head of the stairs and so down, as there was every reason to expect
they would. I did not