The pair, waiting below in the darkness, remained eagerly on the alert. It was a quarter past ten, and Bernard Boyne might return at any time. But each minute which passed seemed an hour, so anxious and puzzled were they, and at every noise they held their breath and waited. At last footsteps sounded outside—somebody ascending the stone steps above—and next second there was a click as a key was put into the latch of the front door. "Here he is—at last!" the girl whispered. "Now we’ll watch!" They watched together—and by doing so learned some very strange facts. *CHAPTER VII* *WHAT HAPPENED IN BRIDGE PLACE* Together Marigold and her lover crept up the kitchen stairs in the darkness, and heard Mr. Boyne moving about in the front parlour. They heard him yawn as he threw off his coat, for the night was sultry, and there were sounds which showed that he was eating his evening meal. They heard the loud fizzing as he unscrewed a bottle of beer, and the noise of a knife and fork upon the plate, for he had left the door open. After about ten minutes, for he seemed to eat his supper hurriedly, he flung off his boots, and in his socks crept upstairs to Mrs. Felmore’s door, apparently to satisfy himself that she had retired. "Hadn’t we better get down," suggested Durrant, in a low whisper. "He may take it into his head to come down and search here." "No, he never comes into the kitchen. So long as auntie has gone to bed he does not mind. Let’s wait and watch." This they did. After a few moments Mr. Boyne came down again and walked along the narrow passage back to his room, satisfied that all was quiet. He had removed his boots, apparently for some other purpose than to be able to move about in silence, for however heavily he trod his old housekeeper would not hear him. Perhaps, however, he feared that her sense of feeling had been so highly developed that she might have detected the vibration caused by his footsteps. He remained for nearly a quarter of an hour in his room, while the pair stood breathless in the darkness. "This is just what happened when I last watched," the girl whispered into the ear of the young man who held her arm affectionately in the darkness. "I wonder when he’ll come out," remarked young Durrant, highly excited over the curious adventure. That something remarkable was afoot was proved by the man’s action in ascending the stairs to ascertain that his housekeeper had retired and would not disturb his movements. At last they heard a soft movement, and next moment, peering over the banisters, they saw a tall, ghostly form clad from top to toe in a long, loose white gown advancing to the stairs. In one hand he carried a glass jug filled with water, and in the other a plate piled with bread and other food. "See!" whispered Durrant. "There is somebody upstairs in that locked room. He’s carrying food and water to his prisoner!"