"No; she's out."
The hall light shone on the visitor's face and he stared hard at the butler. "Hutch," he said in a quieter voice, "don't you remember me?"
"N-n-no, sir; I think not, sir," said the other—and he, too, began to stare.
"Don't you remember the day I fell out of the winesap tree, and you carried me in, and the next week I tried to climb on top of that hall clock, and knocked it over, and you tried to catch it, and it knocked you over, too?"
The butler's lips moved, but at first he couldn't speak.
"Is it you, Master Paul?" he whispered at last, as though he were seeing a visitor from the other world. And again "Is it you, Master Paul?"
"You know it is. Listen, now. Pull yourself together. We've got to get to the dam before ten o'clock, or they'll blow it up. Put your hat on. Have you a car here?"
In the hall the clock chimed a quarter to ten. The tone of its bell seemed to act as a spur to them both.
"There's a young gentleman here," said Hutchins, suddenly turning. "I'll run and get him right away."
As they speeded along the road which led to the bridge above the dam, Paul told what he had heard—Archey in the front seat listening as well as he could.