"What should we scream for?
I've been sitting here at my work for the last hour, as quiet as could be." "And, Sarah,--was it you, Sarah?
For goodness' sake tell the truth." "Me, mum! lor no, mum.

I was up with master showing him and the strange gentleman a light." "You were upstairs with your master?
And did you hear nothing?
A piercing shriek that rang through the house;--you must surely have heard it, both of you." Martha shook her head resolutely.
"Not me, mum; I didn't hear a sound.

The kitchen-door was shut all the time Sarah was away, and I was busy at work, and thinking of nothing but my work.

I wasn't upon the listen, as you may say." The kitchen was at the extreme end of the house, remote from that direction whence the unexplainable cry seemed to have come.
"It is most extraordinary," Ellen said gravely, perplexed beyond all measure.

"But you, Sarah; if you were upstairs with your master, you must surely have heard that shriek; it seemed to come from upstairs." "Did master hear it ?" asked the girl deliberately.
"He says not." "Then how should I, mum?
No, mum, I didn't hear nothink; I can take my Bible oath of that." "I don't want any oaths; I only want to know the meaning of this business.