"And next—a lady," murmured a voice.
It was the doctor who spoke, but his tones were so low that they reached no ear but mine. I stared at him, wondering what he meant.
"A book? What book?" cried Florrie.
The Baronet described the missing volume, relating the circumstances under which he came to lose it. The guests shook their heads. They could give no account of its disappearance.
All the servants, young and old, male and female, now came trooping into the hall, with wonder depicted on their faces at being thus strangely summoned.
"Now, Fruin," said the Baronet, addressing the butler, whose duty it was to see that the gallery was locked at night, "let me ask you if the fastenings of these windows," and he pointed to the long line of casements, "were all as secure when you examined them this morning as they were when you left them last night?"
The butler murmured an affirmative reply.
"You locked the doors at both ends of the gallery?"
"I did, Sir Hugh."