"I hope I didn't startle you a moment ago."

I resolved to be very stiff and formal about it. "May I enquire, madam,
what you are doing in my hou--my castle?"

"You may."

"Well," said I, seeing the point, "what are you doing here?"

"I am living here," she answered distinctly.

"So I perceive," said I, rather too distinctly.

"And I have come down to ask a simple, tiny little favour of you, Mr.
Smart," she resumed.

"You know my name?" I cried, surprised.

"I am reading your last book--Are you going?"

"Just a moment, please," I called out, struck by a splendid idea.
Reaching inside the window I grasped the lanthorn and brought its rays
to bear upon the--perfectly blank wall! I stared open-mouthed and
unbelieving. "Good heaven! Have I been dreaming all this?" I cried
aloud.

My gaze fell upon two tiny holes in the wall, exposed to view by the
bright light of my lamp. They appeared to be precisely in the centre
of the spot so recently marked by the elusive oblong. Even as I stared
at the holes, a slim object that I at once recognised as a finger