"Not we," Forrest declared. "The currents down there are strange ones, and it would be many weeks before your bodies were recovered. Your character in London is pretty well known, and Kate here has been seen often enough on her way up to the Hall. People will soon put two and two together. There are a dozen places in the Spinney where one could slip off into the sea. Besides we shall have a little evidence to offer. Oh, there is nothing for us to fear, I can assure you. Now then. I can see it's no use arguing with you any longer." "One moment," Kate said. "What about the young lady I left outside?" Cecil turned upon her swiftly. "Don't tell lies, Kate," he said. "It's a poor sort of tale that." "At any rate it's no lie," Kate answered. "When I came to your front door, I left the young lady who was staying here only a few weeks ago, Miss Le Mesurier you called her, sitting in the barn waiting." Cecil laughed scornfully. "Did she drop from the clouds?" he asked. "She has been staying at the farm," Kate answered, "for days. I brought her with me to-night because I thought that she might know something about Lord Ronald's disappearance. She is there waiting. If I do not return by daylight, she will go to the police." "I think," Forrest remarked ironically, "that we will risk the young lady outside. Your story, my dear, is ingenious, but scarcely plausible. If you are ready, Cecil--" The four of them were suddenly stupefied into a dead silence. Their eyes were riveted upon the door which led to the underground passage. Cecil's face was almost grotesque with the terrible writing of fear. Distinctly they could all hear footsteps stumbling along the uneven way. Forrest was first to recover the power of speech. He called out to Cecil from the other end of the room. "Shut the door! Shut it, I say!" Cecil took a quick step forward. Before he could reach the door, however, the girl had thrown her arms round his waist. "You shall not close it," she cried. "Who is it coming?" Cecil cried panting. "God knows!" she answered. "They say the ghosts walk here." He strove to loosen himself from her grasp, but he was powerless. Nevertheless he got a little nearer to the door. Forrest came swiftly across the room. Engleton struck at him with a chair, but the blow was harmless. "Stand aside, Cecil," Forrest said. "I'll close it." "I'm hanged if you will," was the sudden reply. Andrew de la Borne stepped out of the darkness and stood upright, blinking and looking around in amazement. CHAPTER XVII