He was leading through the riot of untended flowers, Armstrong close behind him, when he stopped suddenly, and in a tone of voice involuntarily subdued, asked--
"Did you see that?"
"'DID YOU SEE THAT?'"
"What?" said Armstrong, starting in spite of himself.
"A figure--something--I don't know; at the back of the room."
The sunlight, slanting from the south-east, shone full upon the cottage, but left the back of one of the rooms on the ground floor shadowed by the screen of creepers falling over the gaping window.
"Well, suppose there was, why the mysterious whisper?" said Armstrong, his own doubts and remembered tremors disposing him to ridicule Pratt's excitement. "Why shouldn't there be some one there? We are here--why not others?"
"Yes, but--well, I didn't expect it. Perhaps you did."
"It may have been only the shadow of the creeper on the wall."