"Curiouser and curiouser," quoted Jack, from Alice in Wonderland; but we were all too astonished to laugh at his droll face. "I specs he walked in his sleep."  
Harold looked angrily at his elder brother. "I promised I would not go out of the house, and I didn't."
 
"Coach-house doesn't count, I suppose," remarked Rupert, who was, I fancy, a little annoyed by the uneasiness we had all felt.
 
"Don't tease him, my boy," said father, kindly; "let him tell his story in his own fashion."
 
Thus encouraged, Harold sat down, and told us that he had got into the oak chest to hide.
 
"I thought, of course, that you would hear me when I called, but you didn't seem to come into that room at all."
 
"We did go there," said Kathleen; "but you know there is no place to hide there but the cupboard, and that had been left wide open by Rupert when he hid there at the beginning of the game. So we just ran up the stairs, put our heads in and saw that the room and cupboard were empty, and then ran off to what we thought were more likely places."
 
"Then that's why I did not hear your footsteps. The wood must be fearfully thick. I lay still till I began to feel suffocated, and then I tried to get out. I tried and tried, I pushed with my hands, then I lay on my back and pressed with my knees and kicked with my feet. It wasn't a bit of good, I only hurt myself and got more choky. Then my nose began to bleed, and I gave up trying, and lay with my face to the side of the chest. Oh, it was horrible, auntie! I thought that I should die; and I wondered how long you would be before you found me, and what poor father and mother would say when they heard about it."
 
"There, there, don't pile it on," said Jack, rubbing his hand across his eyes; "tell us how you got out, that's what we want to know. Anyone could get in and be choked; but it's a regular Maskelyne and Cooke's dodge to get out again instead."
 
"I can't tell you, I don't remember anything till I woke up in bed in a strange room. I know now it was Robert's. Your new man gave me a sandwich and something out of a little bottle, and I——"
 
"My new man?" repeated father, with his eyes wide open. "Why, I haven't one in the place that has been here less than five years."
 
"Oh! perhaps I made a mistake," said Harold, rather wearily; "I didn't know his face, so I thought he must be a stranger. He had a white coat on like a coachman, and——"
 
"Hurrah!" cried Jack, "my mysterious stranger went to the rescue. Could he talk English, Harold? Was he very furious?"
 
"He was very kind; but he didn't speak once, I remember. He bathed my face with water out of Robert's basin, and I noticed that he kept looking out of the window. Then I heard a noise like a bell; and he went to the window, stood there a minute, then he waved his hand to me, and unlocked the door and went."
 
"Why had he locked the door?"
 
"How can I tell?"
 
"How did you see all this in the dark?"
 
"The moon shone right in at the window. I don't know who the man was, if uncle says he was not one of the servants; but I'm very tired, and don't want to talk any more."
 
So we all were; but I am afraid if there had been any one sleeping in my little room I should have talked all night about our............