After the clock had struck five I went back to the inn. It was now dark, for the moon had not yet appeared, and the clouds hung heavily in the sky. While I was eating the beef and potato pasty which the landlady had provided for me, I thought I heard the sound of wheels, so I went to the door and listened intently, but all seemed silent. I could not be quite sure, however, for the wind had risen and wailed dismally among the trees which grew so plentifully in the valley. I went back and finished my meal, knowing that if I would be strong I must not neglect my food. I was hungry, too, for we Penningtons have always been a hearty race, and have ever insisted on keeping a good table. When I had appeased my hunger I went to the door again. Feeling in my pocket for the rope-ladder I had been making through the day, I prepared to make a detour of the house again. I fancied that Naomi might have some communication to make now darkness had come, and so, eager for something to do, I wandered through the churchyard, and then walked up the road at the back of the house, near which another and smaller building had been reared. Still listening intently, I came to the tree which I had climbed in the early morning, then I went to the place near which the bower had been built. I threw my rope-ladder on the wall, and climbed sufficiently high to have a view of the garden. Nothing rewarded my efforts, however, for I could neither see nor hear anything worthy of attention. I was about to get down again, when I heard the neigh of a horse, followed by a man's angry exclamation. I had scarcely time to consider what this meant, when I heard a woman's cry. With one leap I descended from the ladder, and then, instinctively freeing it from the masonry and stuffing it in my pocket, I ran toward the spot from whence the sound came. I reached the front of the old mansion, but could see nothing; then, like one demented, I ran to the entrance which I had noticed through the day, and which evidently was seldom used. Here I saw flickering lights, and here, also, I heard the voice of the priest to whom I had spoken on the previous evening. "Neatly and safely done," he said. "The fellow is evidently a blockhead after all. I was afraid that the neigh of the horse would give us trouble." Excited beyond measure, I was about to cry out when I heard the sound of horses' hoofs splashing in water, followed by a rumbling noise. "They are crossing the brook!" I cried, and then, scarcely realising what I did, I hurried thitherward.