The letter was unsigned and the handwriting was a strange one to Mr. Thaxton.
He sat and turned the letter over several times, reread and reread it, and at last he muttered:
"I knew that mystery would turn up again. I felt certain of it, and here it is. I will go."
Thereupon he rang the office bell and issued an order for the packing of his traveling-case.
That next day the Penruddie train bore three passengers important to this history--Mr. Thaxton, Leicester and Stumpy.
Leicester saw Mr. Thaxton alight and knew that his letter had taken effect; he carefully avoided the keen eyes of the old lawyer, and he and Stumpy cut across a field near the station and left the village behind them.
Toward midday Stumpy cut out toward the village and found a boy loafing about. He gave him a letter for Job, the carrier, and told him to take it to him and give it him quietly.
The lad, delegated with a sixpence, tore off, and soon slipped into Job's hand this note:
"Be at the old chapel to-night at midnight. H. M."
Job read it and asked the boy who had given it to him.
The lad told him a gentleman, and described Stumpy.
Job at once concluded that the captain had disguised himself, and determined to obey the mysterious missive.
Toward midnight Mr. Thaxton carefully picked his way to the old chapel, and, not without sundry shudders and quakings, took up his place behind the center pillar.
For some time the silence and awful solitude of the place was unbroken save by the whizz of the bat and the subdued screech of the owl.
Mr. Thaxton began to grow cold and shivery, and had almost decided to return to the inn when a slight noise attracted his attention and he saw a light approaching.
It was carried by a short man, whom he at once, by the aid of the light, distinguished as Job, the carrier.
Here, at least, was something tangible and corroborative of the letter.
He dared scarcely breathe, so eagerly curious was he, and he watched Job, who looked round cautiously, and at length seated himself upon the tomb and shaded his lantern.
Midnight struck in solemn, monotonous tones, and immediately there appeared a blue, misty light from among the pillars.
"Come, no larks with me, lads!" he said, savagely. "This is a stale game----"