"He _is_ in the churchyard," insisted Sidney, "there he walks amongst the tombstones. He is going to the new vault. For a time he looks at it."
"How can you see that when the night is dark?" cried Herrick rising, "there is no moon. Come away Sidney, this is bad for you."
"Wait! Wait!" said the boy hastily, "the danger, the danger. Stephen has left the new vault; he has gone to the old one. He is being followed, by a man in a dark cloak. The man has a big stick. He comes behind Stephen he--he--stop! stop!" the boy almost screamed. "No!--don't hit him! Do not hit him. Stephen! Help."
"Sidney," cried Herrick, catching the boy by the arm and now thoroughly frightened "don't go on in this silly fashion."
"I tell you the man has struck Stephen," said Sidney passionately, "he is lying by the old vault unconscious from a blow on the head. The man has gone. I don't know where. Let me go, Mr. Herrick. Stephen is--"
Sidney wrenched himself away from Herrick and went staggering towards the door with his hands held out. Dr. Jim followed him to stop him from leaving the house in this state. But the boy gained the hall before he did. Once there and he seemed to gather strength. He caught up his cap and pulling open the massive door passed outside. Herrick taken by surprise did not wait to put on his own cap. He went after the lad bare-headed thinking he had been seized with a fit of madness. In spite of the darkness of the night he followed on Sidney's heels so closely that he was enabled to keep him in sight. Jim wondered where he was going, being still sceptical of harm to Stephen.
Sidney passed swiftly beyond the belt of pines and down the lane which led to Biffstead. "He is going home," thought Herrick with relief.
But the lad did not go home. He turned off sharp to the left, and entered the churchyard through a side lane. Herrick, now awestruck at his strange experience which he did not understand, ran after him stumbling over the graves. Sidney never fell. He passed swiftly to the old vault of the Carrs. Beside it was a dark body on the ground.
"Stephen! Stephen!" cried the lad, and then sank exhausted beside the body.
Herrick came up thunderstruck at that cry, struck a match and held it close to the ground beside the face of the unconscious man. He started back with an irrepressible cry and let the match fall. It was Stephen Marsh-Carr who was lying there, and he was bleeding from a wound on the back of the head. And beside him, also unconscious, lay the lad who had foreseen the accident.