"Mr. Henry Lorian" (it went), "I realize that you have found me out. I will confess that I had no time to open the chest. But as matters stand I only ask you not to pursue me. I have taken nothing not my own. The ring, and an interesting document which I picked up some years ago, are on the table. Offer what explanation of my disappearance you please. I am in your hands." We turned again to the table. Upon a piece of worn parchment lay the missing ring. Lorian spread out the parchment and bent over it. "Why," I cried, "it is a plan of Ragstaff Park!" "With a perfect network of secret passages!" added my friend, "and some instructions, apparently, as to how to enter them. It bears the initials 'R. R.' and, in brackets, 'Capt. S.' I begin to understand." He raised the candle and stepped across to the ancient chest. It bore a roughly designed skull and cross-bones, and, in nearly defaced red characters, the words: "_CAPTAIN SATAN_." "Captain Satan!" I said. "He was one of the most bloodthirsty pirates who ever harried the Spanish Main!" "He was," agreed Lorian; "and his real name was Roderick Reynor. He evidently solved the riddle some generations earlier than Hulme--and stored his bloodstained hoard in the ancient hiding-place. Also, you see, he knew about the passages." "What shall we do?" "Hulme has surrendered. You can see that the chest has not been opened. Therefore there is only one thing that we _can_ do. We must keep what we know to ourselves, return the chest to its hiding-place, and proclaim that we have found the missing ring!" Down to the hall we bore the heavy chest. The square knob on the ring fitted, as Lorian had predicted, into the hole half hidden among the oak leaves of the design. Without much difficulty we forced back the fastening (it proved to be of a very simple pattern), and slid the whole panel aside. A small, square chamber was revealed by the light of the candle--quite empty. "As I had surmised," said my friend; "a Priest's Hole." We carried the chest within, and reclosed the panel, which came to with a sharp _click_. * * * * * The story which we invented to account for Hulme's sudden departure passed muster; for one topic usurped the interests of all--the ghostly box, with its piratical emblem. "My boy," Colonel Reynor said to Lorian, "I cannot pretend to explain what Sybil saw. But it bears curiously upon a certain black page in the family history. If the chest had been tangible, and had contained a fortune, I would not have opened it. Let all pertaining to that part of our records remain buried, say I." "Which determines our course," explained Lorian to me. "The chest is not ours, and the Colonel evidently would rather not know about it. I regret that I lack the morals of a burglar." The Master of Hollow Grange I