Pale and startled, she raised her finger in a gesture of silence, and we
both stole noiselessly from the room, closing the door behind us.
Upon the thick carpet of the corridor we crept past Shaw's door, and
Asta disappeared into her own chamber, which adjoined, while I went on
to mine.
I could not get that peculiar whistle out of my ears. It seemed as
though it were a signal to somebody; yet though I went back to Shaw's
door and listened there for a full hour, I heard no sound of any
movement. The room was in darkness, and he was, no doubt, already
asleep.
When I turned in, I lay a long time thinking over the reason of Shaw's
friendship with the woman Olliffe. What Asta had told me only seemed to
increase the mystery, rather than diminish it.
I must have dropped off to sleep about two o'clock, puzzled and fagged
out by the long hours on the road, when I was suddenly awakened by
hearing a loud, shrill scream.