There came a dull hammering from the inside the Castle. Stowell shivered.
"Will they be gone in time?"
"Going back by the last train they're telling me."
"You'll whistle when you're clear away?"
"Shure!"
As Stowell crossed the foot-bridge at the back of the Church, he heard the congregation singing the opening hymn ("Nearer, my God, to Thee") and thought he knew the subject of the forthcoming sermon. The melancholy blowing of the fog-horn was coming through the blindness of the sea; the revolving light was blinking in and out on Langness.
A quarter of an hour later he was at Derby Haven. Most of the houses of the little port were dark, but the window of one of them gave out a faint light. Stowell tapped at it and Gell opened the door.
For two hours they sat together in the old maids' stuffy sitting-room, talking in whispers. Stowell gave Gell his last instructions.
"You remember that there are two gates to the Castle?"
"Yes."