It was a dull, thudding sound, very faint. At first it sounded like some distant kind of old-fashioned machinery, probably wooden, coming from a great ways away across the fields. Yet as Matthew came more and more to himself, he realized it wasn’t far away at all, but close—very close by.

He strained to hear. It even sounded like… yes, he was sure now. It was coming from somewhere in the room!

Slowly he rose to a sitting position, reached for his crutches and got to his feet. He put on the robe lying on the couch nearby, and hobbled with the thump, thump, thump of his plastered foot across the floor. Immediately, as the sound of his cast echoed in the quiet morning, the other noise ceased.

Matthew opened the door and glanced up and down the hallway. Not another soul was to be seen, nor was there so much as a sound.

Puzzled, he reentered the room, lay down for a while longer, and read for some time from a newsmagazine, until the manservant who had been helping him came to assist him in getting dressed and then took him down to the family dining room for breakfast.

The rest of the morning passed much as had the two previous days. Sabina visited him several times and read to him, and they talked about many things. After lunch she left him alone again in his room and eventually, after reading for a while, he dozed off.

Again he was awakened by the strange sound.

This time his brain came alert instantly. He sat up in his bed and listened. It was probably two o’clock in the afternoon, so there was none of the early morning eeriness to it, but otherwise it sounded exactly as it had earlier.

It seemed to be coming from one of the walls opposite him.

Matthew determined to make no sound this time. He stole from the bed as carefully as he could, then, with his crutches under his shoulders, made his way noiselessly across the floor toward the tapping noise. He took each step with care, setting his casted foot gently down on the hardwood beneath him.

He approached the corner of the room opposite his bed. It was the shortest wall in the odd-shaped room, out of which a large quarter circle seemed to have been sliced to make way for the great staircase on the other side. Just as he reached the wall, his cast bumped one of the chairs sitting nearby. Instantly the room was quiet. He heard nothing more of the sound the rest of the day.

A few minutes later a knock came at the door.

Still contemplating the strange sound, Matthew gave a start. Then realizing someone was there, he called out for the person to enter.