“Barnes!” he called.  “Where are you?” Shaking with fright, he made his way along the passage, and summoning up all his courage pushed open doors and gazed fearfully into empty rooms.  Then, quite suddenly, he heard the footsteps in front of him.

He followed slowly for fear of extinguishing the candle, until they led him at last into a vast bare kitchen with damp walls and a broken floor.  In front of him a door leading into an inside room had just closed.  He ran towards it and flung it open, and a cold air blew out the candle.  He stood aghast.

[Illustration:  “Into a vast bare kitchen with damp walls and a broken floor.”]

“Barnes!” he cried again.  “Don’t be afraid!  It is I—­Meagle!”

There was no answer.  He stood gazing into the darkness, and all the time the idea of something close at hand watching was upon him.  Then suddenly the steps broke out overhead again.

He drew back hastily, and passing through the kitchen groped his way along the narrow passages.  He could now see better in the darkness, and finding himself at last at the foot of the staircase began to ascend it noiselessly.  He reached the landing just in time to see a figure disappear round the angle of a wall.  Still careful to make no noise, he followed the sound of the steps until they led him to the top floor, and he cornered the chase at the end of a short passage.

“Barnes!” he whispered.  “Barnes!”

Something stirred in the darkness.  A small circular window at the end of the passage just softened the blackness and revealed the dim outlines of a motionless figure.  Meagle, in place of advancing, stood almost as still as a sudden horrible doubt took possession of him.  With his eyes fixed on the shape in front he fell back slowly and, as it advanced upon him, burst into a terrible cry.

“Barnes!  For God’s sake!  Is it you?”

The echoes of his voice left the air quivering, but the figure before him paid no heed.  For a moment he tried to brace his courage up to endure its approach, then with a smothered cry he turned and fled.

The passages wound like a maze, and he threaded them blindly in a vain search for the stairs.  If he could get down and open the hall door——­

He caught his breath in a sob; the steps had begun again.  At a lumbering trot they clattered up and down the bare passages, in and out, up and down, as though in search of him.  He stood appalled, and then as they drew near entered a small room and stood behind the door as they rushed by.  He came out and ran swiftly and noiselessly in the other direction, and in a moment the steps were after him.  He found the long corridor and raced along it at top speed.  The stairs he knew were at the end, and with the steps close behind he descended them in blind haste.  The steps gained on him, and he shrank to the side to let them pass, still continuing his headlong flight.  Then suddenly he seemed to slip off the earth into space.