"She was quite kind to Tony to-day. How well he looks, the darling! He's almost too fat now, instead of being too thin. Precious one! Are you going to sleep with your own missis to-night?" Evidently Master Tony had no intention of being left alone, for when nine o'clock came he trotted upstairs with Gwethyn, and promptly installed himself on her bed. Miss Andrews, coming her duty-round at half-past nine, noticed the silky head peeping from under the dressing-jacket that covered him, but she kindly took no notice. For once he was to be privileged. "Everyone seems to go to bed early on Sunday night," remarked Katrine, taking a glance through the window at the silent village at the bottom of the hill below the school. "Perhaps it's the mental effort of listening that exhausts their brains. I dare say on week-days many of them are like the agricultural labourer in _Punch_, who said he thought of 'maistly nought'. People seem far more tired with two services than with a day's work in the fields." The girls had been sound asleep for a long time, when Gwethyn was suddenly disturbed by an uneasy whimper from Tony. Wideawake in a moment, she sat up. "What's the matter, my precious?" The room was in complete darkness, but she could tell from the dog's warning growl that he was all on the alert. "Do you hear anything?" Tony's low grumble was a sufficient answer in his own language. "Is it rats?" "Be quiet, Gwethyn, and let us listen too," said Katrine, who was also aroused. "I thought I heard a queer noise." In dead silence the girls waited. For a minute or two all was still, then came a curious subdued sound like the very gentle working backwards and forwards of a file. "What is it?" whispered Gwethyn. "I don't know." "It seems to come from downstairs." "Yes, most certainly." "Is it a rat gnawing?" "That's no rat." "Has a bird got into the chimney?" "No, it sounds quite different. I believe it's outside." "Shall I strike a match?" "Better not. I want to listen at the window." Katrine crept out of bed, and groped her way across the dark room to the open casement. It was a cloudy night, with neither moon nor star in the sky, and the view was one uniform mass of blackness. The silence was almost oppressive; none of the ordinary country noises were to be heard, not a cow lowed nor a solitary owl hooted--all the world lay hushed in quiet sleep. The darkness seemed to hedge them round and cut them off from the rest of the slumbering humanity in the village. Tony had followed Katrine, and pushed his cold moist nose into her hand. As she bent down to pat him, she could feel his whole body quivering with tense agitation. "He knows something is wrong, or he wouldn't be upset like this," she thought. Again from the darkness outside came that curious subdued scraping sound. Their bedroom was over the porch. Could a strange dog be scratching at the door beneath? Or some wild animal--a weasel or a stoat, perhaps--be seeking an entrance?