He had read of such aberrations.
And now he sat wondering if he were the victim of a like affliction—and while he wondered he stared at the rope of silk. That was real.
Logic came to his rescue. If he had seen and heard strange things, so, too, had Sime in Egypt—so had his father, both in Egypt and in London! Inexplicable things were happening around him; and all could not be mad!
"I'm getting morbid again," he told himself; "the tricks of our damnable Ferrara are getting on my nerves. Just what he desires and intends!"
This latter reflection spurred him to new activity; and, pocketing the revolver, he switched off the light in the study and looked out of the window.
Glancing across the court, he thought that he saw a man standing below, peering upward. With his hands resting upon the window ledge, Cairn looked long and steadily.
There certainly was someone standing in the shadow of the tall plane tree—but whether man or woman he could not determine.
The unknown remaining in the same position, apparently watching, Cairn ran downstairs, and, passing out into the Court, walked rapidly across to the tree. There he paused in some surprise; there was no one visible by the tree and the whole court was quite deserted.
"Must have slipped off through the archway," he concluded; and, walking back, he remounted the stair and entered his chambers again.
Feeling a renewed curiosity regarding the silken rope which had so strangely come into his possession, he sat down at the table, and mastering his distaste for the thing, took it in his hands and examined it closely by the light of the lamp.