in, as if it
had the eyes of a cat to see with in the dark.

First came the dining-room, and next it the room in which Eustace
and Peter slept. Round the corner were Mrs. Orban's room and part
of the drawing-room. At the other corner was Nesta's room, where
Miss Chase would also sleep, and next to that the servants' room.

The strange visitor made a complete tour of the veranda and reached
the stair again.

Eustace was dreaming vividly. He was out with Nesta and Becky.
Becky had been specially entrusted to their care, and they had been
told only to go a little way into the scrub. As a rule the children
were not allowed to go into the scrub without a grown-up in charge,
for there were dangers among the thick bushy undergrowth known by
this odd name. For one thing, snakes abounded there; for another,
it was only too easy to lose one's bearings, wander farther and
farther into the wood, and eventually die of thirst and
starvation, utterly unable to find the way home again. To Eustace's
distraction, in his dream Becky would insist on playing
hide-and-seek, and kept constantly disappearing and returning,
flitting on in front of them now and again like a will-o'-the-wisp.

"We mustn't let her do it," Eustace exclaimed. "Run, Nesta; we must
catch her."

But the faster they ran, the farther Becky went; it was
extraordinary how fast she could go.

"I can't keep up," Nesta panted.

"Just like a girl," puffed Eustace back, for he was getting
exhausted himself.

Then Becky disappeared right out of sight, and though Eustace
called her till the echoes rang again and again with her name,
there came no answer.

"Now I guess we shall all be lost," thought Eustace desperately.

He was rushing madly hither and thither, when suddenly he heard a
blood-curdling yell not very far off. It was followed by another
and another, till his heart stood still with terror.

"Of course," he said, pulling himself together with all his might,
"she must be in the secret chamber. I never thought of that."

But even as the notion flashed into his mind he knew how silly it
was to think of a secret chamber in the Bush. He was so paralyzed
by the awfulness of the sounds that for a moment he could not move;
but at last, with a mighty effort, he forced himself to dart
forward in the direction whence the cries came.

A second later he was fighting blindly with some thing that clung
unpleasantly to him. It took him a moment to realize that this wa