He looked rather grave.
"I am sorry to hear it," he said, when I had finished. "There is insanity in his family, you know—I don't think his brain is what it was. And once he went off his head altogether."
"When?"
"Soon after his cousin was drowned. He saw it happen. That was enough to drive anyone mad, perhaps. But he was always queer."
"Then, to-night—?"
"Yes. When he gets to the bottom of the staircase again we will follow him."
The day passed off very quietly, and nothing more was said about the statue. We went to our rooms at the usual time, and I sat down to wait. At a few minutes past twelve I heard the noise beginning. It came up the staircase as it had done before, and paused for a moment outside the door. Then I again heard the sigh, or groan, and the clattering down the stairs. I opened my door and found Auberthal already on the landing.
"Make haste," he said. "It is going down the corridor towards the study."
