He studied the loop-holes one after the other. One of them, or rather the
place which it had occupied, attracted his attention above the rest. In
the middle of the layer of plaster, which had served to block it, there
was a hollow filled with earth in which plants had grown. He pulled out
the plants and removed the earth, thus clearing the mouth of a hole some
five inches in diameter, which completely penetrated the wall. On bending
forward, Renine perceived that this deep and narrow opening inevitably
carried the eye, above the dense tops of the trees and through the
depression in the hill, to the ivy-clad tower.

At the bottom of this channel, in a sort of groove which ran through it
like a gutter, the telescope fitted so exactly that it was quite impossible
to shift it, however little, either to the right or to the left.

Renine, after wiping the outside of the lenses, while taking care not to
disturb the lie of the instrument by a hair's breadth, put his eye to the
small end.

He remained for thirty or forty seconds, gazing attentively and silently.
Then he drew himself up and said, in a husky voice:

"It's terrible ... it's really terrible."

"What is?" she asked, anxiously.

"Look."

She bent down but the image was not clear to her and the telescope had to
be focussed to suit her sight. The next moment she shuddered and said: