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A considerable group of the skating party had consisted of the guests
staying at the house, and the rest had tailed off in twos and threes
some time before most of the guests began to retire for the night.
Neighbors, always invited to Prior's Park on such occasions,
went back to their own houses in motors or on foot; the legal
and archeoological gentleman had returned to the Inns of Court
by a late train, to get a paper called for during his consultation
with his client; and most of the other guests were drifting
and lingering at various stages on their way up to bed.
Horne Fisher, as if to deprive himself of any excuse for
his refusal of early rising, had been the first to retire
to his room; but, sleepy as he looked, he could not sleep.
He had picked up from a table the book of antiquarian topography,
in which Haddow had found his first hints about the origin of
the local name, and, being a man with a quiet and quaint capacity
for being interested in anything, he began to read it steadily,
making notes now and then of details on which his previous reading
left him with a certain doubt about his present conclusions.
His room was the one nearest to the lake in the center
of the woods, and was therefore the quietest, and none of
the last echoes of the evening's festivity could reach him.
He had followed carefully the argument which established
the derivation from Mr. Prior's farm and the hole in the wall,
and disposed of any fashionable fancy about monks and magic wells,
when he began to be conscious of a noise audible in the frozen
silence of the night. It was not a particularly loud noise,
but it seemed to consist of a series of thuds or heavy blows,
such as might be struck on a wooden door by a man seeking to enter.
They were followed by something like a faint creak or crack,
as if the obstacle had either been opened or had given way.
He opened his own bedroom door and listened, but as he heard
talk and laughter all over the lower floors, he had no reason
to fear that a summons would be neglected or the house left
without protection. He went to his open window, looking out
over the frozen pond and the moonlit statue in the middle
of their circle of darkling woods, and listened again.
But silence had returned to that silent place, and, after
straining his ears for a considerable time, he could hear
nothing but the solitary hoot of a distant departing train.
Then he reminded himself how many nameless noises can be heard
by the wakeful during the most ordinary night, and shrugging
his shoulders, went wearily to bed.
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