The Argosy — page 307: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A Great Mystery. 289 is rather cloudy on the point. Other cases I know have been traced to the sudden mania, solely mischievous or otherwise, of some female inmate. I hope it will not turn out to have been Lettice herself.” ‘¢ Shall I watch without you, Miss Deveen ?” ‘‘No no; you will bear me company. We will make our arrange- ments now, Johnny— for I do not intend that any soul shall know of this ; not even Miss Cattledon. You will keep counsel, mind, like the true and loyal knight you are.” The house had gone to rest. In the dark breakfast-room sat Miss Deveen and I, side by side. The fire was dying away and it gave scarcely any light. We sat back against the wall between the fire place and the door, she in one armchair, I in another. The secretary was opposite the fire, the key in the lock as usual ; the window, closed and barred, lay to the left, the door to the nght, a table in the middle. An outline of the objects was just discernable ! in the fading light.” ‘*Do you leave the key in the secretery as a rule, Miss Deveen?” I asked in a whisper. ‘Yes. There’s nothing in it that anybody would care to look at,” she replied in the same cautious tone. ‘‘ My cash-box is generally there, but thag is always locked. But I think we had better not talk, Johnny.” So we sat on In silence. The faint light of the fire died away, and gave place to total darkness. It was weary watching there, hour after hour, each hour seeming like an age. Twelve o'clock struck ; one ; two! I’d have given something to be at liberty to fall asleep. Just to speak a word to Miss Deveen would be a relief, and I forgot her in- junctions. “ Are you thinking of ghosts, Miss Deveen?” “Just then I was thinking of God, Johnny. Howgood it is to know that He is with us in the dark as in the light.”’ Almost with the last word, my ears, younger and quicker than Miss Deveen’s, caught the sound of a faint movement outside—as though steps were descending the stairs. I touched Miss Deveen’s arm and breathed a caution. ‘‘T hear something. I think it is coming now.” The door softly opened. Some white figure was standing there— as might be seen by the glimmer of light that came in through the fan- light over the hall-door. Who or what it was, we could not gather a notion of. It shut the door behind it, and came slowly gliding along the room on the other side the table, evidently feeling its way as it went, and making for the window. We sat in breathless silence. Miss Deveen had caught my hand and wds holding it in hers. Next the shutters were unfastened and slowly folded back; then the window was unbolted and its doors were flung ‘wide. ‘This Jet-in a flood of moonlight : after the darkness the room seemes PRASAD SO VOL. XV.