Mrs Gabriel and Pratt turned in the direction where the sound came, she with a pale face, and Pratt with a levelled revolver which he took from his breast pocket. Leo might have been in danger of his life, but that he chanced to remember a peculiar tune which Pratt had taught him, in order to announce his coming while he was staying at The Nun's House. At the time Leo had thought this was only a freak of the old man's, but now that he knew who Pratt was, he saw that there was use in it, to Pratt if not to himself. At all events, he began to whistle.
Hardly had he got through the first few bars before Pratt's watchful attitude relaxed, and he tossed the revolver on to the table. Mrs Gabriel still continued to look agitated, but Pratt stepped towards the window and opened it coolly.
"I knew it was you," he said, pulling Leo into the room and shutting the window. "It is a lucky thing you remembered my signal, else I might have drilled a hole in you. You come at a happy moment." Here he stopped and looked suspiciously at the young man. "Have you that infernal Marton with you?" he asked, with a glance at the window and a movement towards the revolver.
"No, no," replied Leo, hastily. "I am all alone."
"That's a good thing," said Pratt, grimly. "I won't be taken alive, I promise you. But I knew you would not give me away. I said so to Mrs Gabriel. She said you would--speaking the worst of you as usual."
Leo was too much taken aback by the discovery that Pratt was in the castle to reply immediately. Moreover, the man was so cool and composed that he felt as though he were in the wrong. He tried to collect his scattered thoughts, but before he could open his mouth Mrs Gabriel spoke in her usual domineering tones.
"What are you doing here, Leo?" she asked. "How did you get on to the terrace? No one can get on without the key of the gate."
"I happen to have the key," said Leo, showing it. "You gave it to me yourself some years ago. When I left you I took it with me by mistake. It has come in useful to-night. You may thank your stars, both of you, that I did not bring Marton back with me. He left me at the foot of the hill with a story that you were ill, Mrs Gabriel."
"Leo," said Pratt in an agitated tone, "surely you would not have brought the man here to get me into trouble?"
