He ran ahead of the others and took the great stone steps two at a time.  But Borkins had opened the door before he reached it.  His eyes stared, his mouth sagged open.

“Mr. Wynne, sir?  You found ’im?” he asked hoarsely.

“No.  No trace whatever, Borkins.  Where’s your master?”

“Sir Nigel, sir?  ‘E’s asleep, and snorin’ like a grampus.  This’ll be a shock to ’im sir, for sure.  Mr. Wynne—­gone?  ’T ain’t possible!”

But Tony had pushed by him and thrown open the smoking-room door.  The warm, heated atmosphere came to them comfortingly.  He crossed to the table, picked up a decanter and slopped out a peg of whisky.  This he drank off neat.  After that he felt better.  The other men straggled in after him.  He faced them with set lips.

“Now,” said he, “to tell Nigel.”

CHAPTER VIII

THE VICTIM

Dacre Wynne had vanished, leaving behind him no trace of mortal remains, and only a patch of charred grass in the middle of the uninhabited Fens to mark the spot.  And Nigel Merriton, whose guest the man was, must of necessity be told the fruitlessness of the searchers’ self-appointed task.  The doctor volunteered to do it.

Tony West accompanied him as far as Nigel’s, and then he suddenly recollected that Merriton had locked it the night before.  There was nothing for it but to hammer upon the panels, or—­pick the lock.

“And he’ll be sleeping like a dead man, if I know anything of sleeping draughts,” said the doctor, shaking his head.  “Got a penknife, West?”

West nodded.  He whipped the knife out of his pocket and began methodically to work at the worn lock with all the precision of an experienced burglar.  But the action brought no smile to his lips, no little mocking jest to help on the job.  There was something grim in the set of West’s lips, and in the tension of the doctor’s slight figure.  Tragedy had stalked unnoticed into the Towers that evening and they had become enmeshed in the folds of its cloak.  They felt it in the cold clamminess of the atmosphere, in the quiet peace of the long corridors.

Finally the thing was done.  West turned the handle and the door swung inward.  The doctor crossed to the bedside and took hold of the sleeping man’s shoulder.  He shook it vigorously.

“Nigel!” he called sharply once or twice.  “Wake up!  Wake up!”

But Merriton never moved.  The performance was repeated and the call was louder.

“Nigel!  I say, wake up—­wake up!  We’ve news for you!”

The sleeping man stirred suddenly and wrenched his shoulder away.

“Let go of me, Wynne, damn you!” he broke out petulantly, his eyes opening.  “I’ve beaten you this time, anyhow, so part of our score is marked off!  Let go, I say—­I—­I—­Doctor Bartholomew!  What in Heaven’s name’s the matter?  I’ve been asleep, haven’t I?  What is it?  You look as though you had seen a ghost!”