"Absolutely empty!" said Sir Edgar; "as regards human beings, that is. I tell you, man, I went nearly mad with the horror of it, and the fear for my darling girl! There was not a sign, no trap-doors or panels, nothing, and I simply had to give up in the dark, and now I want your help! By Heaven they shall suffer if a hair of that angel's head is so much as touched--the devils. I don't care if Miss Cheyne is killed, she deserves it, but Peggy----" He broke down, turning his haggard face in his hands and his shoulders shook spasmodically. A brief moment and Sir Edgar pulled himself together with a jerk. "Sorry," he gulped, apologetically, "made an ass of myself, but you can't think what a night I've spent----" "That's all right, sir," said Mr. Headland with an air of the proper respect due from him. "But I don't think as there's anything to be done till me and my mates come down and have a peep at the place. That's about it, don't you think so, sir?" He turned to Mr. Narkom, who, though puzzled by Cleek's strange aloofness, still knew his methods too well to do anything else but agree with him. "Certainly, Headland," he returned. "We'll go down to Hampton as quickly as you like." "I think it would be best for the young gentleman to get back to Hampton first, and we'll come down and look round casual like," said Mr. George Headland in an off-hand manner. "Ten chances to one but wot the young lady's tied up in one of the upper rooms, don't you know." "Now I never thought of that!" threw in Sir Edgar quickly. "Yes, you're right. I will get back and leave it in your hands." "And you may safely do so," said Mr. Narkom, shaking the young man's hand sympathetically as he took his departure. "What do you think about it, Cleek?" he cried excitedly, when the door had closed. "Think? I think a good many things, my dear fellow," retorted that gentleman serenely, "and one of them is, why didn't Sir Edgar break the dining-room door down at once before he made that fruitless rush around the house. He might have known that the doors would be locked at evening time." "I never thought of that!" said Mr. Narkom. "Still, I don't see what that has to do with it. You are not insinuating that the man would harm his own sweetheart? Where is the incentive?"