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Manners looked up. “Hear what?”

Baines raised a hand for silence.

For several moments they stood motionless. Somewhere beyond the walls came a dull, irregular tapping. It lasted only a few seconds before falling silent.

“There,” Baines said. “Someone is knocking.”

Renforth moved closer to the wall. “From which direction?”

“I cannot tell.”

Manners crossed towards the fireplace and listened. “It may be travelling through the old chimney flues. Sound carries remarkably well through such places.”

Baines pressed his ear against the panelling, but heard nothing more.

“Judith!” he called. “Can you hear me?”

His voice echoed through the deserted room. No answer came.

“Perhaps it was a shutter,” Manners suggested.

“There is scarcely enough wind to stir a leaf.”

“Then we shall continue looking.”

Baines stepped into the corridor. The sound had seemed to come from somewhere ahead, although the arrangement of the rooms made it difficult to judge the distance. He proceeded to the next door, found it locked, and tested the handle with increasing impatience.

“We shall need a key.”

Renforth examined the lock. “Or another entrance. Simmons mentioned that the servants’ passages connected several of these apartments.”

“I have already searched one entrance,” Baines replied. “But there may be another.”

Manners glanced towards the end of the corridor. “There are two rooms remaining. Let us examine those before we begin dismantling the house.”

They had scarcely taken another dozen steps when the knocking sounded again. This time Baines heard three distinct blows, followed by a pause and several more. He stopped so suddenly that Manners nearly collided with him.

“There! You heard it.”

“Indeed.” Manners’ expression had lost its customary amusement. “And I do not believe it was a shutter.”

Baines turned towards the nearest door and called Judith’s name again. The knocking ceased.

“Judith!”

A long silence followed. Then came another faint succession of taps, so distant that he could scarcely determine whether they originated above or below them.

“She is answering,” he said.

Renforth nodded. “Then we must find the source. Manners, examine the room on the left. Baines, take the one opposite. I shall remain here and listen.”

Baines entered a small withdrawing room overlooking the neglected courtyard. Dust lay thick upon the furniture, and the windows were so clouded that little daylight penetrated the glass. He crossed to the fireplace and examined the panelling, then tested the door of a narrow cupboard beside it.

Empty. He returned to the corridor, where Manners emerged from the opposite room with an equally dissatisfied expression.

“Nothing. But I heard the knocking again, and it seemed louder near the far wall.”

“There must be another chamber beyond these rooms,” Baines said.