ich they had been gazing,
towards which in fact, at that moment, Meekins, with a low cry, had made
a fruitless spring. The ladder down which they had descended was slowly
disappearing. Meekins, with a jump, missed the last rung by only a few
inches. Some unseen hand was drawing it up. Already the last few feet
were vanishing in mid-air. Mr. Fentolin sat quite quiet and still. He
looked through the trap-door and saw Hamel.

"Most ingenious and, I must confess, most successful, my young friend!"
he exclaimed pleasantly. "When you have made the ladder quite secure,
perhaps you will be so good as to discuss this little matter with us?"

There was no immediate reply. The eyes of all four men were turned now
upon that empty space through which the ladder had finally disappeared.
Mr. Fentolin's fingers disappeared within the pocket of his coat.
Something very bright was glistening in his hand when he withdrew it.

"Come and parley with us, Mr. Hamel," he begged. "You will not find us
unreasonable."

Hamel's voice came back in reply, but Hamel himself kept well away from
the opening.

"The conditions," he said, "are unpropitious. A little time for
reflection will do you no harm."

The trap-doors were suddenly closed. Mr. Fentolin's face, as he looked
up, became diabolic.

"We are trapped!" he muttered; "caught like rats in a hole!"

CHAPTER XXXIII

A gleam of day was in the sky as Hamel, with Mrs. Fentolin by his side,
passed along the path which led from the Tower to St. David's Hall.
Lights were still burning from its windows; the outline of the building
itself was faintly defined against the sky. Behind him, across the sea,
was that one straight line of grey merging into silver. The rain had
ceased and the wind had dropped. On either side of them stretched the
brimming creeks.

"Can we get into the house without waking any one?" he asked.

"Quite easily," she assured him. "The front door is never barred."

She walked by his side, swiftly and with surprising vigour. In the
still, grey light, her face was more ghastly than ever, but there was a
new firmness about her mouth, a new decision in her tone. They reached
the Hall without further speech, and she led the way to a small door
on the eastern side, through which they entered noiselessly and passed
along a little passage out into the hall. A couple of lights were still
burning. The place seemed full of shadows.

"What are you going to do now?" she whis