There was a flicker and a furious clicking, and there appeared on the small screen which was used for projection purposes, a picture of two people. Adele was one and Reggie Connolly the other, and Michael gazed stolidly, though with rising annoyance, at a love scene which was being enacted between the two.
In the immediate background was the wall of the tower, and Michael saw for the first time that there was a little window which he did not remember having seen from the interior of the hall; it was particularly dark, and was lighted, even in daytime, by electric lamps.
“I never noticed that window before,” he said.
“It’s the window I want you to watch,” said Jack Knebworth, and, even as he spoke, there came stealthily into view a face.
At first it was indistinct and blurred, but later, it came into focus. It was the oval face of a girl, dark-eyed, her hair in disorder, a look of unspeakable terror on her face. She raised her hand as if to beckon somebody—probably Jack himself, who was directing the picture. That, at least, was Jack’s view. They had hardly time to get accustomed to the presence of the mystery girl when she disappeared, with such rapidity as to suggest that she had been dragged violently back.
“What do you make of that?” asked Knebworth.
Michael bit his lip thoughtfully.
“Looks almost as though friend Penne had a prisoner in his dark tower. Of course, the woman whose scream I heard, and who he said was a servant! But the window puzzles me. There’s no sign of it inside. The stairway leads out of the hall, but in such a position that it is impossible that the girl could have been standing either on the stairs or the landing. Therefore, there must be a fifth wall inside, containing a separate staircase. Does this mean you will have to retake?”
Jack shook his head.
“No, we can back her out: she’s only on fifty feet of the film; but I thought you’d like to see it.”