"Come with me; I have something mighty queer to show you." And after word of the Captain's arrival had been sent to the ladies, McCaleb led the way around to one side of the house, coming to a halt in the dense darkness beneath the porte-cochère.
"After I 'phoned, Miss Westbrook came to me and asked if there was any likelihood of your coming to the house soon. She was a good deal confused and embarrassed; but the question so stumped me—after what happened this morning, you know,—that I forgot my good manners, and asked her 'Why?' But she replied that she had something to tell you alone, which she thought you would be glad to hear—that it was of such importance that you would doubtless pardon a summons to come at once. Then I told her you were probably on your way here now; and with that she turned away, apparently satisfied."
McCaleb caught the other's arm and drew him onto the lawn, away from the house and from beneath the porte-cochère. Again lowering his voice to a whisper, he said:
"Look up at those two windows, there, right over the roof of the carriage-entrance."
Converse did so, and noted that the carriage-entrance roof formed a balcony upon which the two windows gave, and that the room beyond was evidently brightly illuminated, for faint rays of light found their way through minute interstices in the curtains:
"Well?" he queried at length.
"That is Miss Westbrook's bedroom."
"Yes? And what's queer about that?"
McCaleb considered a minute.
"Well, sir, I saw her at that window to-night, waving a lighted candle about, as though signalling some one."