"No, I suppose not.... Hello! we've been a long time here, haven't we? And I haven't seen the half of the place yet. Isn't that the luncheon gong? Or is it just your tangy Highland air that makes me hungry enough to imagine it?" "Neither," said she, laughing. "That's Rhea's bell. It hangs just under the bronze statue of Rhea--you remember the one I showed you yesterday as we came home together?--and it rings upon the entrance of any one through the great gate. A clumsy contraption, which has never been altered in all these years." "But quite useful--with unwanted visitors," he replied, stooping suddenly and picking up something off the carpet. "Hello, what's this? Looks like a bit of flexible electric wire. Something of your brother's hobby, no doubt." He held it out to her in the open palm of his hand. It was just a little scrap of crimson-covered flexible wire, and she barely noticed it. "And ... hello, hello! No electricity used in here, either. I suppose that's because your father doesn't approve?" "Yes. Ross wired the room--or had it wired with the aid of an electrician--and then installed the light. But Father was so angry that he would rarely ever use it. Sticks to the musty old lamp over there, for most things." "And is the room still wired?" "Yes. There's a wall plug over there by the door. Why, Mr. Deland?" "Oh, nothing. Then that would account for this fragment of flexible wire, wouldn't it? H'm. Yes. I see. I see." But what he saw he did not at that moment mention, and Miss Duggan had to guess at his meaning. "But it was done ten days ago-- I must really speak to the servants and tell them to keep the place cleaner than they do. Fancy leaving odd pieces about like that!" she ejaculated, sensitive to any suggestion of poor management upon the part of Castle authorities. But Cleek did not hear. He was standing over by the wall-plug, looking down at it, and then kneeling, began to examine it minutely. She watched him in amazement, unused to his methods. "Why, Mr. Deland--" "Oh, just looking at how your brother does his work. Quite a good workman, isn't he?" said Cleek, rising slowly to his feet, and pocketing the bit of flexible wire forthwith. And that was the last word she could get out of him upon the subject. CHAPTER V A STARTLING DISCOVERY Within one short hour Cleek had explored the Castle from end to end, in company with a tireless girl for whom every stick and stone of the grand old place held a memory that was as sacred to her as the church is to the priest who has passed all his days in the service of it. But they met no other members of the family just then. Only, as they passed through the left wing, where the servants' quarters lay beyond, Cleek was introduced to Johanna McCall--paid hireling and companion of Lady Paula, and not too pleased with her job, either, if all he read in that frightened face of hers was true.