“Of course I couldn’t get anything out of them, but they were behaving so queerly that I sent one of the maids, who had a sweetheart working in the local public-house, the Bee and Clover, to see if she could pick up anything. When she got back she said that Joe had ‘been funny,’ and that she’d had to make a bit of a scene before she could get anything out of him, and that he’d only mutter that Black Jack had said something the night before. He’d come in for a drink and left almost at once. When she asked what he’d said, he wouldn’t answer, but had left her and gone home. She’d never seen him like that, she’d said. So putting two and two together, sir, I made out that Black Jack had made some sort of threat against the master which the local people believed he would carry out, and so they wanted to have as little to do with the Hall as possible. I thought the master seemed a bit uneasy at dinner that night. Sometimes he’d seem to be listening to something, and several times I noticed him giving sudden quick looks into a dark corner there was between the door and the serving table. After dinner he went out on to the lawn and walked in a stealthy sort of way over towards the clump of big cedars. “Well, my pantry window looked out that way, and I saw the master suddenly come running back, and then I heard him slam the window of the morning-room. When I took in the whisky and soda he was looking a little queer, I thought. His face was flushed and his eyes were sort of screwed up, sir, as if he wasn’t sure if he could see something or not. “The next morning when I went to call him I found him wide awake--which I never remembered him being before. “‘Whose dog is that?’ he asked, as soon as I came in. “‘What dog, sir?’ I asked. “‘I don’t know,’ he answered shortly. ‘I was restless during the night, and got up, and I saw it on the lawn. Find out whose it is and keep it away. Tell whoever owns it I shall have it shot if I see it again.’ “‘Very good, sir,’ I said. “I made some enquiries, but no one knew anything about it, and the new keeper told me both his dogs had been sleeping in his kitchen from eight o’clock on. “The master was all right through the day, but as soon as dusk came on he seemed worried and not himself. We were all a bit on edge, sir, for it was then the Noise began. “It was quite faint at first. Now, sir, I know I shall never be able to explain what it was like, because the strange thing was that we couldn’t really say we heard it, not through one’s ears, that is to say. It was as if it was going on inside one’s head. Also it was as much a shake as a noise; when it got worse it made everything in the house--how would you call it, sir?” “Vibrate?” suggested Mr. Ponders.