e stone-flagged
passage.

"Where is Count Eustace de Chateau Noir?"

"My master! He is out, sir."

"Out at this time of night? Your life for a lie!"

"It is true, sir. He is out!"

"Where?"

"I do not know."

"Doing what?"

"I cannot tell. No, it is no use your cocking your pistol, sir. You
may kill me, but you cannot make me tell you that which I do not know."

"Is he often out at this hour?"

"Frequently."

"And when does he come home?"

"Before daybreak."

Captain Baumgarten rasped out a German oath. He had had his journey for
nothing, then. The man's answers were only too likely to be true. It
was what he might have expected. But at least he would search the house
and make sure. Leaving a picket at the front door and another at the
back, the sergeant and he drove the trembling butler in front of them--
his shaking candle sending strange, flickering shadows over the old
tapestries and the low, oak-raftered ceilings. They searched the whole
house, from the huge stone-flagged kitchen below to the dining-hall on
the second floor, with its gallery for musicians, and its panelling
black with age, but nowhere was there a living creature. Up above, in
an attic, they found Marie, the elderly wife of the butler; but the
owner kept no other servants, and of his own presence there was no
trace.

It was long, however, before Captain Baumgarten had satisfied himself
upon the point. It was a difficult house to search. Thin stairs, which
only one man could ascend at a time, connected lines of tortuous
corridors. The walls were so thick that each room was cut off from its
neighbour. Huge fireplaces yawned in each, while the windows were 6ft.
deep in the wall. Captain Baumgarten stamped with his feet, tore down
curtains, and struck with the pommel of his sword. If there were secret
hiding-places, he was not fortunate enough to find them.

"I have an idea," said he, at last, speaking in German to the sergeant.
"You will place a guard over this fellow, and make sure that he
communicates with no one."

"Yes, captain."

"And you will place four men in ambush at the front and at the back. It
is likely enough that about daybreak our bird may return to the nest."

"And the others, captain?"

"Let them have their suppers in the kitchen. The fellow will serve you
with meat and wine. It is a wild night, and we shall be better here
than on the country road."

"And yourself, captain?"

"I will