for our lamps, sending long streamers of light ahead of us, disclosed
far empty stretches, without vehicle of any kind. There was no moon,
and the stars were half-obscured by a haze of cloud, while along the
horizon to the west, I caught the occasional glow of distant
lightning.

And then the sky was suddenly blotted out, and I saw that we were
running along an avenue of lofty trees. The road at the left was
bordered by a high stone wall, evidently the boundary of an important
estate. We were soon past this, and I felt the speed of the car
slacken.

"Hold tight!" said Godfrey, turned sharply through an open gateway,
and brought the car to a stop. Then, snatching out his watch, he
leaned forward and held it in the glare of the side-lamp. "Five
minutes to twelve," he said. "We can just make it. Come on, Lester."

He sprang from the car, and I followed, realising that this was no
time for questions.

"This way," he said, and held out a hand to me, or I should have lost
him in the darkness. We were in a grove of lofty trees, and at the
foot of one of these, Godfrey paused. "Up with, you," he added; "and
don't lose any time," and he placed my hand upon the rung of a ladder.

Too amazed to open my lips, I obeyed. The ladder was a long one, and,
as I went up and up, I could feel Godfrey mounting after me. I am not
expert at climbing ladders, even by daylight, and my progress was not
rapid enough to suit my companion, for he kept urging me on. But at
last, with a breath of relief, I felt that I had reached the top.

"What now?" I asked.

"Do you see that big straight limb running out to your right?"

"Yes," I said, for my eyes were growing accustomed to the darkness.

"Sit down on it, and hold on to the ladder."

I did so somewhat gingerly, and in a minute Godfrey was beside me.

"Now," he said, in a voice low and tense with excitement, "look out,
straight ahead. And remember to hold on to the ladder."

I could see the hazy mist of the open sky, and from the fitful light
along the horizon, I knew that we were looking toward the west. Below
me was a mass of confused shadows, which I took for clumps of
shrubbery.

Then I felt Godfrey's hand close upon my arm.

"Look!" he said.

For an instant, I saw nothing; then my eyes caught what seemed to be a
new star in the heavens; a star bright, sharp, steel blue--

"Why, it's moving!" I cried.

He answered with a pressure of the fingers.

The star was indeed moving