His unbroken calm angered me. Some one had fired at me through a window and I had narrowly escaped being shot. I resented the unconcern with which this servant accepted the situation.

“Nothing worth mentioning. Somebody tried to assassinate me, that’s all” I said, in a voice that failed to be calmly ironical. I was still fumbling at the catch of the window.

“Allow me, sir,”—and he threw up the sash with an ease that increased my irritation.

I leaned out and tried to find some clue to my assailant. Bates opened another window and surveyed the dark landscape with me.

“It was a shot from without, was it, sir?”

“Of course it was; you didn’t suppose I shot at myself, did you?”

He examined the broken pane and picked up the bullet from the table.

“It’s a rifle-ball, I should say.”

The bullet was half-flattened by its contact with the wall. It was a cartridge ball of large caliber and might have been fired from either rifle or pistol.

“It’s very unusual, sir!” I wheeled upon him angrily and found him fumbling with the bit of metal, a troubled look in his face. He at once continued, as though anxious to allay my fears. “Quite accidental, most likely. Probably boys on the lake are shooting at ducks.”

I laughed out so suddenly that Bates started back in alarm.

“You idiot!” I roared, seizing him by the collar with both hands and shaking him fiercely. “You fool! Do the people around here shoot ducks at night? Do they shoot water-fowl with elephant guns and fire at people through windows just for fun?”

I threw him back against the table so that it leaped away from him, and he fell prone on the floor.

“Get up!” I commanded, “and fetch a lantern”

He said nothing, but did as I bade him. We traversed the long cheerless hall to the front door, and I sent him before me into the woodland. My notions of the geography of the region were the vaguest, but I wished to examine for myself the premises that evidently contained a dangerous prowler. I was very angry and my rage increased as I followed Bates, who had suddenly retired within himself. We stood soon beneath the lights of the refectory window.

The ground was covered with leaves which broke crisply under our feet.

“What lies beyond here?” I demanded.

“About a quarter of mile of woods, sir, and then the lake.”

“Go ahead,” I ordered, “straight to the lake.”