These directions were obeyed at once. The house, the grounds, the whole wild night with its driving tempest became radiant with lights and alive with terrified men. That a human being should be murdered was sufficiently ghastly without this crowning horror of a missing body coming after. Every man looked on his fellow with suspicion; in the yellow light of the lanterns, dimly through the steady downpour of rain, could be seen pallid faces and scared expressions. And while the men folk scoured the house, the park, and the adjacent lanes environing "Ashantee," the female servants, unnerved and hysterical, crowded together in the kitchen, whispering over hastily prepared tea. It was a wild night, and full of the vague horrors of death and mystery. Etwald came immediately from Deanminster in company with Arkel, whom this last extraordinary event took entirely by surprise. He questioned Sampson--the young policeman left in charge--he searched the chamber of death, stepped out of the window and across the lawn toward the belt of laurels which divided the lawn from a winding and tortuous lane. This, a tenebrous pathway even in the noonday, slipped eel-like through darkling trees to emerge into the high road a quarter of a mile away. Arkel was so long absent that Jen could only surmise that he had gone into this outward darkness, and on the inspector's return it appeared that the major was right in his conjecture. Furthermore Arkel brought back certain news. "Without doubt the body was taken out through the window," he said to Jen. "The flower-bed beneath the lattice is trampled down. It was carried across the lawn--for I could see by the light of the lantern the footmarks of four feet--and through the bushes into the lane. The way can be traced easily enough to that point; but it is too dark to note any further sign." "Nothing more can be done to-night," said Jen, gloomily. "The men have returned dead tired, but they have seen nothing and no one." "Where were you when the body was stolen?" "Sleeping in the library. I saw that all was safe about midnight, and then sat down over a book and fell asleep. I woke somewhere about three--" "You are sure it was that hour?" "Certain. I heard the hall clock strike. On waking I went into the room where the dead body was laid out to assure myself that all was well. I found the bed empty, the window open, and Jaggard insensible." "Did you hear any noise?" "None at all. But the wind and rain were wild outside, so that they may have drowned the noise made by those who broke in." "We must question your servant," said Arkel, having noted the major's answers in his pocket-book. "He was stunned, I believe?" "I can't say. I haven't examined him. Stunned or drugged, I suppose." "And where is Mr. Sarby?" asked the inspector, as they turned to leave the room.