It was as though somebody was turning on the lights in the drawing-room. She waited tensely for the next sound. Presently there was an indistinguishable whisper, and then a voice spoke. Clearly the words came to her. “Lois Reddle is very near to death!” She knew the voice, in her imagination could almost see the speaker. It was Michael Dorn. Chapter Fifteen In a second she had recovered, and had leapt out of bed. Better the known than the unknown. All fear had vanished; she would face Dorn and have the truth. Snatching up her dressing-gown, she went to the door, turned the key noiselessly and ran down the dark stairs. The drawing-room faced her as she came on to the landing, and she did not hesitate, but flung open the door. The place was in darkness, and reaching out, she felt for the light switches and turned them. The room was empty; there was no sound save the musical ticking of a French clock on the mantelpiece, no sign of Michael Dorn or of his unknown companion. She gazed bewildered. Then she heard a noise behind her and spun round. “What is it?” It was the countess, who slept on the same floor as the girl. “Turn on the landing lights,” said the woman calmly, and when she did so, Lois saw the older woman standing on the landing above, wrapped in a white ermine coat, as calm and imperturbable as ever. “I thought I heard voices and came down.” “In the drawing-room? Of course, it is under your bedroom!” Lady Moron descended the stairs without haste and walked into the salon. “You must have been mistaken, there’s nobody here,” she said. “I’m afraid your nerves are on edge. The opening of your door woke me. What did the noise sound like? The windows are fastened. None of the furniture has been moved.” “I heard somebody speaking,” said Lois. “Go to bed, my child.” Her large hand patted the girl gently on the shoulder, and Lois went meekly up the stairs and into her room. She came down to breakfast the next morning feeling a wreck, and Lizzy, warned by her friend, made no reference at the table to the voices of the night. She saw the girl off and came back to the dining-room. A footman was clearing the table under Braime’s watchful eye. When the man had gone: “Her ladyship says you heard somebody speaking in the night, Miss Reddle?” “I thought I did. Perhaps I was dreaming, or only imagined that I heard her ladyship in my sleep.” “Lady Moron did not go into the drawing-room last night,” was the surprising reply. Lois stared at the man, who went on: “Her ladyship went into the library, but you would not hear her from your apartment.” The library! That was where the microphone was fixed, and all the time she had been talking to Lady Moron on the landing Michael Dorn and his assistant had been on the floor below. The library was situated on the ground floor at the back of the house. She was thankful that she had not found him whilst that watchful woman was hovering in the background.