Which Narrates Sundry Happenings at Oakshott's Barn

Even on a summer's afternoon Oakshott's Barn is a desolate place, a
place of shadows and solitude, whose slumberous silence is broken
only by the rustle of leaves, the trill of a skylark high overhead,
or the pipe of throstle and blackbird.

It is a place apart, shut out from the world of life and motion, a
place suggestive of decay and degeneration, and therefore a
depressing place at all times.

Yet, standing here, Barnabas smiled and uncovered his head, for here,
once, SHE had stood, she who was for him the only woman in all the
world. So having paused awhile to look about him, he presently went
on into the gloom of the barn, a gloom damp and musty with years and
decay.

Now glancing sharply this way and that, Barnabas espied a ladder or
rather the mouldering remains of one, that led up from the darkest
corner to a loft; up this ladder, with all due care, he mounted, and
thus found himself in what had once served as a hay-loft, for in one
corner there yet remained a rotting pile. It was much lighter up here,
for in many places the thatch was quite gone, while at one end of
the loft was a square opening or window. He was in the act of
looking from this window when, all at once he started and crouched
down, for, upon the stillness broke a sudden sound,--the rustling of
leaves, and a voice speaking in loud, querulous tones. And in a
while as he watched, screening himself from all chance of observation,
Barnabas saw two figures emerge into the clearing and advance
towards the barn.