The outcast still fumbled his way forward. A sudden light of intelligence flashed over Gordon as he looked curiously at his brother. "I think, sir," he said, "that my brother is suffering from some great affliction. Ralph, what is it? Why do you feel for things in that way?" "I must," the wanderer replied. "I know every inch of the castle. I could find my way in the darkest night over every nook and corner. Father, I have come back to you. I was only to come back to you if I were in sore need or if I was deeply afflicted. Look at me! Does my face tell you nothing?" "Your face is--is dreadful. And, as for your eyes, I cannot see them." "You cannot see them," Ralph said in that dreadful, thrilling, strangled whisper, "because I have no sight; because I am blind." Without a word Ravenspur caught his unhappy son by the hand and led him to the dining-hall, the family following in awed silence. CHAPTER III THE CRY IN THE NIGHT The close clutch of the silence lay over the castle like the restless horror that it was. The caressing drowsiness of healthy slumber was never for the hapless Ravenspurs now. They clung round the ingle nook till the last moment; they parted with a sigh and a shudder, knowing that the morrow might find one face missing, one voice silenced for ever. Marion alone was really cheerful; her smiling face, her gentle courage were as the cool breath of the north wind to the others. But for her, they would have gone mad with the haunting horror long since. She was one of the last to go. She still sat pensive in the ingle, her hands clasped behind her head, her eyes gazing with fascinated astonishment at Ralph Ravenspur. In some strange, half-defined fashion it seemed to her that she had seen a face scarred and barred like that before. And in the same vague way the face reminded her of her native India. It was a strong face, despite the blight that suffering had laid upon it. The lips were firm and straight, the sightless eyes seemed to be seeking for something, hunting as a blind wolf might have done. The long, slim, damp fingers twitched convulsively; feeling upwards and around as if in search of something. Marion shuddered as she imagined those hooks of steel pressed about her throat, choking the life out of her. "Where are you going to sleep?" Ravenspur asked abruptly. "In my old room," Ralph replied. "Nobody need trouble about me. I can find my way about the castle as well as if I had my eyes. After all I have endured, a blanket on the floor will be a couch of down." "You are not afraid of the family terror?" Ralph laughed. He laughed hard down in his throat, chuckling horribly.