My tone sobered the boy, but he did not pretend to be influenced by any such high motives as those which I persuaded myself actuated _me_, far more than idle curiosity. "I don't see that you or any stranger could possibly be of the least use to them," he said. "All the same I'd give anything to find out about it, and I don't see but what we might make some investigations without doing any one any harm. You are plucky enough for anything--not like Isabel; and just supposing, Reggie, that there _is_ somebody shut up there that no one has ever seen; that man you met might be a kind of a keeper." "He was a gentleman," I replied. "He might have been some sort of a doctor," said Moore consideringly. "And don't think for a moment," I said, without noticing his last remark, "that they are the kind of people to do anything wicked or cruel. They are the sufferers themselves, of that I am certain." "I'll have a good look at them in church next Sunday," he replied. "I do remember noticing them in their big square pew, and thinking they looked gloomy and queer, but I could not see them very well from where I sat. Have you been back to the door in the wall again to see if it is still open?" I shook my head. "No," I replied, "I have kept quite out of the way of it since Isabel got so frightened. Indeed I have not spoken to her about it for some time, and I have often thought how much I should like to tell you about it; I knew you'd be so interested. Only, Moore--remember what you have promised," I added impressively. "Of course I shall," he replied. "You've never known me break my word, now, have you, Reggie?" "No," I allowed. "And I'm not going to do such a thing this time," he continued. "Besides, it would be a mean sort of trick to start anything on my own account, and keep you out of the fun." "It is not _fun_ I am thinking of," I replied, with some indignation. "Oh well, you know what I mean. You'd like awfully to find out what is at the bottom of it all, and so would I. We needn't say more than that. I don't suppose we _shall_ find out anything, but the mere idea of it is so interesting. I wonder what the house is like inside. Are the windows barred, do you know?" "Not that I have seen," I replied. "Certainly not on the side where Isabel and I were. And you can see for yourself that there's nothing of the kind on this side," for, as I said, we were standing on the hilly ground from which two sides of the Grim House were fairly well within view. "No, Moore, I don't believe in your theory of some one being shut up there. It would have come out to a certainty through the servants. I told you they have no old servants of their own; they just get them in the neighbourhood like other people."