Then on again, however, without accident.
At last, after he had passed two more such buttresses, and each with more danger of falling than the last, he arrived at the tower.
There he paused a moment; and then, as he was on the point of starting forward again, he was suddenly held spellbound in his tracks by the sound of a voice which seemed to be calling to him from among the clouds; and he was amazed and almost unbelieving when he recognized in the words that were uttered his own name.
“Nick Carter! Nick Carter!”
Twice he heard it, and then all was silent again, save for the pounding of the waves against the rocks below.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE MEN INSIDE THE CASTLE.
There was something so weird and so unreal in the sound of his own name, coming to the detective as it did, seemingly from the infinity above him, that for a moment he quite refused to believe that his ears had not deceived him.