To tell the truth both Mr. Russell and Webb had felt rather squeamish at the idea of helping Bessant carry out his revenge but now that the thing had actually been set in motion in this house so far from anywhere, it had aroused nasty age-old instincts and they were only too anxious to begin.

Mr. Bessant smiled obsequiously, reverting to the servant as was his habit when he was not actually taking any action. “I took the liberty of bringing a cold supper and some very good claret, gentlemen. You will find it in the next room.”

“Splendid chap,” said Webb. “What about Alice? What if the girl recovers her wits while we are dining?”

“Tie her up too,” said Bessant, touching Alice’s still body with the toe of his boot. “She can wait.”

The Eighth Duke of Haversham smiled dreamily at his reflection in the looking glass. He had dressed in the clothes he had worn when he first saw Alice. It was a romantic gesture and he felt he had never been romantic before.

He was bejeweled and scented and patched and powdered. He found it rather awkward to walk about in his red high-heeled shoes for he had become accustomed to wearing Hessian boots most of the time.

It was just at that point that some awful, harsh, grating voice seemed to shriek inside his head. “Help, sir!” it cried. “Your niece is in danger. Help! We are somewhere in Surrey. Outside Richmond, I think. Oh, help! They’ll murder us.”

He put his hands to his ears but the voice cried on and on.

Paralyzed with fear, he stood motionless, listening to the terrified voice ringing inside his head.

And then all at once he was off and out of the Hall, out under the black sky and flying over the silent fields, flying faster than he had ever done before, pulled always by the harsh crying of that frightened voice.

Alice let out a faint moan and tried to sit up. She found she could not, for her arms and legs were tied. The bare room was lit by a single tallow candle and in its flickering light, as she twisted over on her side, she could see the bound and gagged figure of her companion. Miss Fadden’s eyes were staring at Alice in mute appeal, trying to convey some desperately important message and all at once Alice thought she understood what the companion was trying to say.