In the nick of time, when it seemed to her that something would have to go, that she must break down, Major Reith returned. "I am very sorry to have kept you waiting so long, but I can't help thinking that someone has been playing tricks with me." "Haven't you found her--the woman who screamed?" It sounded so strangely in her ears that she did not know her own voice. "I found no one. I believe my attention has been diverted with some ulterior purpose. Have you heard nothing?" "What haven't I heard? I believe there has been someone in the next room." "We will soon see about that--come. I'm going to take you into that room on the road to bed; and I shall have to rouse the house, but first I shall see you safe to your own chamber." Only with the greatest difficulty, even with his support, could she return to the adjoining apartment. The instant the door was opened they made a discovery. "You see," she cried, "it wasn't only imagination, someone has been here--the lights are out." What she said was correct; the room, which they had left lighted, was in pitch darkness. There appeared to be switches by every door, and it took Reith but an instant to have the room as radiant as before. Both their glances travelled in the same direction. This time it was the major who exclaimed: "Good God! Draycott's gone!" CHAPTER XVII Sleepers Awakened It was a fact: the dead man's body had disappeared, in so brief a space of time that Major Reith and Miss Forster did not find it easy to credit the evidence of their own senses. They had been out of the room--how long? At the most, three or four minutes. They had gone into the next room, been there not more than a minute when the woman was heard screaming. Although circumstances had made the time during which Miss Forster had been left alone seem infinite, actually it was probably only a minute or two. During those fleeting minutes what had--what could have happened? Had the dead man come back to life and taken himself away? There was nothing to show that anything had happened. There was the club, the furniture, apparently in exactly the same confusion in which they had left it; only a dark red stain, that was still wet and shiny, marked the place on the floor where something had been lying. And that stain was eloquent; the man from whom so much blood had come must have been in a parlous condition, certainly in no state to pick himself up and walk unassisted from the room. For he would probably have been bleeding still; his progress would quite possibly have been marked upon the carpet. Which way could he have gone? There were two windows and three doors--all of them were shut. Reith looked to see if there were signs of him on the other side of the doors. There was nothing.