there was something so weird and so unreal in the sound of his own name, coming to the detective as it did, seemingly from the infinity above him, that for a moment he quite refused to believe that his ears had not deceived him.
remember, there was the thundering of the waves against the rocks all around him; the boom of the surf as it broke beneath its own weight and violence farther out toward the sea; the sobbing and moaning of the wind over the bleak cliff and through the ruins of the older part of the castle, and the faint cries of sea-birds coming to him from far away to windward. all this tended to render him uncertain about the voice which seemed to call to him from the black sky over his head; just as all this made it impossible to determine whether the voice, if it were indeed a voice, had proceeded from a man or a woman.
but sober second thought reassured him.
who, but one person in all the world, could have called to him there?
he knew that it was impossible, even if bessie harlan were indeed a prisoner inside the old château, that she should have witnessed his approach, or that she should have recognized him from her aerie window, even if she had discovered the approach of two pedestrians before[185] the gathering darkness had hidden them from view. but he explained the seemingly inexplicable phenomenon in quite another way than that.
“if bessie is a prisoner there,” he reasoned to himself, “she believes absolutely that max and i will come to her rescue, sooner or later. if she is a prisoner there, she is confined in a room which overlooks the sea—a room in this very tower, in fact; and if all that be true, that call of hers was simply a wail of impatient waiting and longing, called out by her to the heavens, the clouds, the sea, the wide, wide world. not in the hope that it would literally be heard, perhaps, but, nevertheless, a call to us to hasten.”
several moments he waited, wondering if there would be a repetition of the call; and then, when one came, he wondered again if he should reply to it. his better judgment told him not to do so, and so presently he turned away to pursue his course around the castle.
but he discovered, presently, that he had been deceived in his surmises that it would be possible for him to skirt the tower between it and the water, and, at last, satisfied that he could not do so, he turned back again over the course he had come.
he was not long in arriving at the spot where he had left kane, but he did not pause there. after hesitating just one instant in order to get his bearings properly, he started forward again toward the place where they had agreed to meet.
when he arrived there, however, maxwell kane was not there, and the detective could discover no trace of him[186] in any direction. he waited a few moments, thinking that something might have detained him, and that he had, therefore, not yet arrived, although he knew all the time that nothing of an ordinary nature could have done so.
there were no impediments in the way between the spot where they had parted and where they agreed to meet.
nick had just traversed every inch of it, and he had met with no obstacle of any kind, nor had he seen a sign of life or a light anywhere.
for that very reason he figured that doubtless something had attracted the attention of kane after his arrival at the place of meeting, and he had gone to investigate. but after he had waited fully half an hour, the detective decided that it was time for him to move.
he had not a doubt now that something had happened to his companion. he was confident, however, that kane could not have fallen, or have met with an accident, without the intervention of another person.
presently he scribbled these five words: “wait here till i return,” on a leaf torn from his book of memoranda, and, wrapping it in a handkerchief, he weighted it with a pebble and left it where the white of the cambric would attract the attention of kane, should he regain the spot before the detective could get back again.
“and now to break my way into that castle,” he mused. “and i must take extra care, too, for if some prowlers around this old pile have captured kane, they will be on the lookout for me as well.”
the low building, which resembled a bowling-alley[187] more than anything else, and which extended from one wing of the castle to the edge of the bluff on the side toward the harbor, had evidently been erected originally to serve as a passageway between the château and the water when the weather was inclement; and this was the building which was before him now. but in inspecting it from a distance the detective had decided that this would provide a means of entrance. it was almost windowless, and such as it contained were much too small and too high from the ground to serve his purposes.
he therefore turned again toward the castle, and hurried toward a spot where he remembered to have seen a wealth of ivy growing against the old walls. he had not forgotten their locality, and he went directly to the spot.
the ivy was old and tough, and had grown firmly in its place, so that when he placed his hands upon it he knew that it would sustain him readily. he recalled the fact that the ivy trailed across several windows, and so he began at once to make his way up it.
the dampness of the falling rain had rendered the ivy in such a condition that it gave out no sound as he climbed, while the dark background against which he clung afforded no opportunity for prying eyes to discover him.
he climbed rapidly, for he realized now that haste was necessary. the strange call to him from the window of the tower, and the disappearance of maxwell kane, had convinced him that all was not to be as smooth sailing as he had anticipated.
soon he arrived at a window, set deeply into the wall,[188] and casemented for defense in time of attack. but this window had long been in disuse, and even the glass had been replaced by heavy planking, to keep out the wind and weather.
there were two more stories above that one, he remembered, and he continued on, after a pause of only a moment. the second window at which he arrived was in the same condition as the first, so in clambering on, he worked to the right as well as upward, until he arrived at the top story of the old building. here the third window offered the same impediments as had the others, so he continued on in a straight line toward the front of the castle.
suddenly, however, he stopped. directly in front of him, not three feet distant, a light had suddenly shot through the darkness, coming, as he quickly discovered, from one of the windows.
these were set so far back into the wall that it is doubtful if the sunlight could ever, even under the most auspicious conditions, penetrate to the interior of the room; and it was almost as difficult for a light from the interior to filter to the outside. two steps more upon the vine which held him suspended in mid-air brought him to the window, so that he could see what was passing inside the room, and he peered cautiously around the casement.
he was rather surprised, then, to discover that he was looking into what had once been a part of a suite of rooms, set aside, doubtless, for royalty, or for especially honored guests at the castle. the room itself was very large, and had once been magnificently appointed, but now[189] its furnishings were tawdry and soiled, yellowed with age, and musty from disuse.
nevertheless, there were many persons within the room. nick counted six men there. four of them were seated at a table engaged in a game of cards, and the other two were standing near, observing the game.
they were so engrossed in their occupation that it did not occur to one of them to look toward the window. but the detective did not linger there to watch them. instead, he lowered himself sufficiently so that he could pass unobserved beneath the window, and then continued on his way, taking careful note of the location of the room in the meantime.
he had noted, too, that he would have to pass two more windows before he arrived at one which did not open directly into that room, and so he did not pause again in his advance until he reached the third. here, also, as he raised himself, he discovered that there was a light; but as he peered into the room through the narrow window he was assured that, for the moment, at least, it was unoccupied.
the window, too, was slightly ajar; that is, it was open perhaps half an inch, doubtless for the sake of ventilation. he stepped into the embrasure, which was very deep, and slowly pushed the window open in front of him. a second and more comprehensive glance rendered him positive that nobody was in the room, and with another slightly harder pressure, he opened the casement wide, and stepped inside, closing it, as he had found it, after him.
[190]
the room was quite large—possibly twenty-five feet square; and it was used as a sleeping-room; but he had no time to take in further details of the place, for at that instant he heard steps approaching through a corridor, and he had barely time to leap behind the door when it was opened from the outside.
nick had in that instant prepared himself to leap upon the person who approached, whoever it was, and conquer him, preparatory to continuing his investigations through the castle; but fate kindly stepped in and served him a good turn at this juncture.
the opening of the door, together with the already open window, created a draft which the flame of the lamp, burning on the table, could not withstand. as the door swung open, the lamp flared, sputtered for an instant, and then went out, leaving the room in total darkness.
nick could not even discover the outlines of the person who had entered the room, but a round, french oath, in a masculine voice, cursing at the ill luck, left him in no doubt that it was a man.
the extinguishing of the lamp, however, afforded nick an excellent opportunity to act, and as the man stepped forward toward the table, in order to strike another light, the detective slipped quietly and quickly past him into the corridor. the man had left the door ajar when he stepped forward toward the table, but nick had the presence of mind to close it, and to close it with a bang, exactly as if the draft had caught it and slammed it shut.
then he waited a moment and listened, to discover if his deception had been successful; but there was no[191] further sound from the interior of the room, and the detective concluded that the man had relighted his lamp and disposed himself to reading or some other employment, with no thought that he had passed so near to the person of an intruder.
and just at this point nick made another discovery which was interesting: there was an inside and outside door to each of the rooms on that corridor. that is, there was one for general use—the one which he had already made use of—and another which opened outward into the corridor, doubtless for use in emergencies.
this door was much heavier than the outside one. they were relics of old days when the castle was likely to be stormed, and the occupants might be compelled to fight from room to room, holding one after another until they were finally driven from all.
whatever the original uses were, the present one was manifest. the detective lost no time in closing that outside door, and he was agreeably surprised to discover that it was provided with a huge key, which he had no difficulty in removing and replacing on the outside. in another instant he had locked it.
that done, he passed along the corridor toward the doors of the room wherein he had seen the six men; and he had no difficulty in locating it, for he had counted carefully from the outside.
and these doors—there were two of them, he closed and locked in the same manner as he had served the others, so that presently he was satisfied that whatever[192] adventures he might encounter inside the old château these seven men whom he had seen would take no part in them.
“and now for the tower,” he said, aloud, as he turned away.
