The Argosy — page 308: what you’re looking at

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

290 A Great Mystery. day. And the white figure doing all this was—Janet Carey in her night gown, her feet bare. Whether Miss Deveen held my hand the tighter, or I hers, I dare- say neither of us could tell. Janet’s eyes turned on us, as we sat: and I fully expected her to go into a fit of shrieks. But no. She took no manner of notice. It was just as though she did not see us there. Steadily, metHodically as it seemed, she pro- ceeded to search the room, apparently looking for something. First she took the chintz cover off the nearest chair, and shook it out; turned over the chair and felt it all over; a small round stand was served the same; a blotting-case that happened to lie on the table she carried to the window, knelt down, and examined it 6n the floor by the moonlight, passing her fingers over its few pages, unfolding a letter that was inside and shaking it out to the air. Then all that was left on the . floor, and she turned over another chair, and so went on. I felt as cold as charity. Was it her ghost that was doing this? How was it she did not see us sitting theree Her eyes were open enough to see anything | Coming to the secretary, she turned the key, and began her search in it. Pulling out one drawer first, she opened every paper it contained, shook them one by one, and let them drop on the floor. As sle was commencing at the next drawer, her back towards us, Miss Deveen whispered me. ‘We will get away, Johnny. You goon first. No noise, mind.” We got out without being seen orheard. At least, there was no out- cry ; no sign to tell we had been. Miss Deveen drew me into the dining-room ; her face, as it caught that glimmer, entering by the fan-light, looked deadly pate. “ T understand it all, Johnny. She is doing it in her sleep.” ‘““In her sleep?” “Yes. She is unconscious. It was better to come away. As she came round to search in our part of the room, she nnght have found us, and awoke. That would have been dangerous.” “ But, Miss Deveen, what 1s she searching for?” “T know. I see it all perfectly. It is for a bank-note.” + “ But—if she is really asleep, how can she go about the search in that systematic way? Her eyes are wide open: she seems to examine things as though she saw.” “‘T cannot tell you how it is, Johnny. They do seem to see things, though they are asleep. What's more, when they awake there remains no consciousness of what they have done. This is not the first case of somnambulism I have been an eye-fitness to. She throws the window and shutters open to admit the light.” “‘ How can she have the sense to know in her sleep. that.the opening of them will admit it?” ECoOMmicloooks (CO) in —_)