"A few farmhouses merely, in the valley along the streams. The glory of the Dukla is its ruins."
"Ah, of course, there are feudal castles——"
"Javorina, Jägerhorn, Szolnok——"
"Szolnok!" said Renwick with sudden interest. "I have heard that name before——"
He paused in a puzzled way.
"It was the summer residence of Baron Neudeck——"
"Ah, then it is not a ruin?"
"Until three years ago he lived there—in the habitable part—when something terrible happened. No one about here is sure—but the place has an evil name."
"That is interesting. Why?"
"The facts have never been clearly explained. The story goes that Baron Neudeck was in the midst of entertaining guests—a hunting party of gentlemen; that there was a night of revelry and of drinking. One of the servants, entering the dining-hall in the morning, found Baron Neudeck lying dead upon the hearth with a bullet wound in his forehead. The guests had disappeared—vanished as if the earth had swallowed them."