In vain I looked about the hall in the hope that it would give some clue to their practice or their faith. I could discover nothing to help me more than one would find in the refectory of some large public college except this same beautiful statue I have spoken of, with its floral offerings and candles. All the same, the expression on this sculptured woman's face was not one of benignity or of sweetness at all but of a remote passionless beauty for beauty's sake, as it were--something that had been wrought without any ethical ideal behind it or hope of moral change or influence in the beholder. Soon I decided quite finally that there was no religious tie at St Bruno's--none at all. Their secret of organisation was not, I was persuaded, one of a common faith or of devotion to a concrete and well-defined Church. They had some other bond which might be as strong as death, but it had nothing to do with the hereafter. Now was that bond good or evil? Abruptly I was aroused from my meditations by the arrival of the Prior, a powerful-looking, hooded figure in a robe of black, whose face at first was kept carefully concealed, but who wore around his neck one mark of distinction not possessed by his fellows--a thin chain of gold, at the end of which dangled a compass set around with some gold ornamentation, on which was inscribed a well-worn truism: "I point always to the north." "Welcome, Mr Glynn," he said in a voice which somehow had a familiar ring in it but which I could not then recognise. "Our mutual friend, Jose Casteno, has kept us of St Bruno's well posted as to the earnest way in which you have laboured for the rightful recovery of the documents relating to the whereabouts of the Lake of Sacred Treasure in Tangikano, and I am glad to see you here--to thank you." I bowed, and in return murmured something conventional--that the pleasure was mutual. Inwardly I was assailed with one question: "Where had I heard that voice before?" "You are, of course, quite a free agent," the Prior proceeded, "and any moment you choose to leave or to set about other business you are at liberty to do so. Personally, however, I hope you will stay with us whilst we decipher these documents. You are, I understand, quite a palaeographic expert yourself, and it may well happen that your experience or your knowledge may prove of infinite value to us." "I am quite at your service," I returned coldly. "Indeed, the understanding between us is," broke in Jose eagerly, "that he shall have our full confidence over this matter. I have promised him that we shall do nothing in the dark. Every step we take shall be accompanied by him."