Gaston’s eyes had been scanning the whole place with hawk-like gaze.  Now he turned to his brother and spoke in rapid whispers.

“Entrance will be none too easy here.  The narrow windows, with their stone mullions, will scarce admit the passage of a human body, and I can see that iron bars protect many of them still farther.  The doors are doubtless strong, and heavily bolted.  The old sorcerer has no wish to be interrupted in his nefarious occupations, nor does he trust alone to ghostly terrors to protect his house.  Methinks we had better skirt round the house, and seek that other entrance of which we have heard.  Raymond, did not our mother tell us oft a story of a revolving stone door to an underground passage, and the trick by which it might be opened from within and without?  I remember well that it was by a secret spring cleverly hidden —­ seven from above, three from below, those were the numbers.  Can it be that it was of Basildene she was thinking all that time?  It seems not unlikely.  Seven from the top, three from the bottom —­ those were certainly the numbers, though I cannot recollect to what they referred.  Canst thou remember the story, Raymond?  Dost thou think it was of Basildene she spoke?”

“Ay, verily I do!” cried the other quickly, a light coming into his face.  “Why had I not thought of it before?  I remember well she spoke of dark water which lay upon the outside of the house hard by the entrance to the underground way.  Rememberest thou not the boat moored in the lake to carry the fugitive across to the other side, and the oars so muffled that none might hear?  And did not Mistress Joan say that the secret way into Basildene was hard by the fish ponds on the west side of the house?  It can be nothing else but this.  Let us go seek them at once.  Methinks we have in our hands the clue by which we may obtain entrance into Basildene.”

Cautiously, as though their foes were at hand, the brothers slipped round the crumbling walls of the house, marking well as they did so that despite the half-ruinous aspect of much of the building, there was no ready or easy method of access.  Every gap in the masonry was carefully filled up, every window that was wide enough to admit the passage of a human form was guarded by iron bars, and the doors were solid enough to defy for a long time the assault of battering rams.

“It is not in ghostly terrors he mainly trusts to guard his house,” whispered Raymond, as they skirted round into the dim darkness of the dense woodland that lay behind the house.  “Methinks if he had in very truth a guard of evil spirits, he would not be so careful of his bolts and bars.”