“You’ll have to come back now,” he whispered; “and I’ll try to find out another way round. You can’t get over this wall.” “Can’t I?” said the country girl contemptuously. “You go first and just give me a hand on the other side.” He obeyed very reluctantly, and he scarcely got over the wall himself when the athletic young girl was by his side. After that, with a sort of dismal acquiescence in the fact that she must have her own way, he led her without further pause to the door of the house which they had made their hiding-place. Here at last for a moment the girl’s brave spirit seemed to fail her. For Sep removed the lower boards of the door noiselessly, and she saw that the house was as black as night inside, and felt the hot fumes of stifling smoke which, coming up through the hole made in the floor of what had once been the back-shop, spread slowly through the whole house, and escaped, through what cracks and crevices it could find, into the open air. Sep snatched at the opportunity of persuading her to go back. “Listen,” he whispered. “Can’t you hear him singing to himself down there?” Deborah bent forward, and caught certain fitful, crooning sounds, which, rising from time to time to a loud, savage note, made her shiver. “He sings like that when he has done some diabolical thing,” Sep went on. And Deborah heard his teeth chatter. “It would not be safe for you to go near him now.” “But Lord St. Austell! What can have become of him?” asked Deborah with a sudden impulse of alarm stronger than any she had felt yet. “Well, you can’t help him, anyhow,” said Sep shuddering. “And Rees?” Sep did not answer. They were inside the house now, listening to that terrible crooning. “I must find out what has happened--what is going on,” said Deborah suddenly, with decision. “You can’t see anything unless you go down into the first cellar,” said Sep, sulkily. “And then, if he heard you go, or saw you through the door, it would be all up with you.” “Won’t you come down with me?” He hesitated, and then said pettishly, “Why can’t you come back?” “I can’t till I am sure that no harm has happened to Lord St. Austell. Will you come!” “I suppose so--if you won’t be persuaded,” said Sep, sullenly. It was easy to descend without noise, as every precaution to deaden sound had been taken by the three confederates. The ladder was fixed quite firmly, and the rungs of it were covered with felt. Deborah went down first, and waited at the bottom of the ladder for Sep, not knowing which way to move in the darkness. But he did not come. She did not dare to call to him, and while she was debating with herself whether she should creep up the ladder again and shame him into accompanying her, a very faint sound above told her that he had broken faith and gone back, leaving her to face alone whatever danger might be awaiting her.