"Dark! Dark is not the word. This part of the drive is a veritable Hades." "By-the-bye, Mr. Marx," I remarked, "I fancied that I heard a cry a few min----" "A cry! What sort of a cry?" he interrupted sharply, in an altered tone. "Well, it sounded to me very much like the moan of a man in pain," I explained, looking half fearfully around. "Of course, it might have been a hare, but it was wonderfully like a human voice. Listen! Can't you hear something now?" I cried, laying my hand upon his arm. We stood close together in silence, listening intently. A faint wind had sprung up, and was sighing mournfully through the trees, which were soaked and weighed down by the heavy rain. Drip, drip, drip. At every sigh of the breeze a little shower of rain-drops fell pattering on to the soddened leaves and the melancholy music was resumed. It was altogether very depressing and I was palpably shivering. "I can hear nothing," he said, with chattering teeth. "It must have been your fancy, or a hare squealing, perhaps." "I suppose so," I admitted, glad enough to be forced into this conclusion. "I wouldn't say anything about it at the lodge," he remarked, preparing to depart. "Anderson is as nervous as a cat already." "All right, I won't. Good night." "You're not frightened, are you?" he asked. "If you like, I'll walk down to the lodge with you." "Not in the least, thanks," I answered, a little indignantly. "I thought that noise was queer, that's all. Good night." I walked swiftly away, listening all the time, but hearing no unusual sound. In a few minutes I reached the gates and found Anderson waiting about outside. He let me through at once. "May I go in here for a minute?" I asked, pointing to the room in which I had been kept waiting on my way up to the Castle. "I have a message to give you from Mr. Ravenor." "Certainly, sir," he answered, opening the door. I stepped inside, half expecting to see the man whom Mr. Ravenor had refused to receive; but it was quite empty. "So Mr. Richards has decided not to wait, after all?" I remarked, looking round. "He was wise. I'm sure Mr. Ravenor wouldn't have seen him." "Yes, sir," the man answered; "he slipped out without leaving any message or anything, while I had gone across the way for some coal. I was a bit taken aback when I returned and found the place empty, for he'd been swearing ever so a minute or two before that he'd see Mr. Ravenor, or stop here for ever." "He can't have gone on up to the Castle, can he?" I asked, looking around. The man shook his head confidently. "Impossible, sir! The gates were locked and the keys in my pocket, and there are no windows to this room, you see, on the Castle side." "But there is a door," I said, pointing to the upper end of the apartment. "Go and look at it, sir," Anderson answered, smiling. I did so and examined it closely. There were no bolts, but it was fastened with a particularly strong patent lock. "Who keeps the key?" I inquired.