"You said something over the 'phone about strange men being seen in the car," remarked Penteney.
"Oh, that?--yes, the same girl said she thought she could see two men sitting in the car," answered Lady Riversreade. "Of course they'd be strange."
Penteney turned to the policemen, at the same time tapping Hetherwick's arm. "I think we'd better go across the park and see for ourselves if there are any signs of a struggle at any particular place," he said. "I don't think either Madame Listorelle or Miss Featherstone likely persons to be carried off without making a fight for it. Have you been across the grounds yet?" he added, to the elder of the two men. "I mean by the path they took?"
"Not yet, sir; we've only just arrived," answered the man.
"Come along, then," said Penteney. He lingered a moment as Hetherwick and the policemen left the hall, and said a few words to Lady Riversreade; then he hurried out and headed his party. "This way," he continued, leading Hetherwick along the terrace, "I know the usual route to the Home--plain sailing from here to there, except at one spot, and there, I conclude, whatever has happened did happen!"
Hetherwick paid particular attention to the route along which Penteney led his party. The path went straight across the park, from the end of the terrace at the Court to near the front entrance of the Home, and from the Court itself it looked as if there was no break in it. But about half-way between the two houses there was an important break which could not be seen until pedestrians were close upon it. Transecting the park from its southern to its northern boundaries was a sunk roadway--the middle drive to which Lady Riversreade had referred--gained from the park above, on each side, by ornamental steps. Whatever happened in that roadway, Hetherwick saw at once, could not have been seen from the higher ground above, save by anyone close to its edge. But two or three hundred yards or so from the steps, which made a continuation of the path, the embankments of the sunk road flattened out into the lower stretches of the park, and there the road itself could be seen from the top windows of the Court, and from those of the Home also.
Penteney paused at the top of the ornamental steps.