The Argosy — page 264: what you’re looking at

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

Mrs. Raven's Temptation. 243 Each missive was written in the same large, scrawling hand which Philip and Frank had learned to recognise—the horrible caricature of the late Squire’s caligraphy. The two young men looked at each other. ‘Do you wonder at my alarm?” asked Miss Agate. Philip had rapidly made up his mind that something must be told. ‘‘We have been growing accustomed to similar mysteries,” he said, lightly. ‘‘My mother’s governess received a letter only the day before we left Coltburn. I must confess that I fear this annoyance is due to an indiscretion committed by myself, Miss Evelyn and my sister. A woman came to our town professing to be a fortune-teller, and we foolishly consulted her. Since then, we have had some unaccountable vexations; and the worst of it is, they have not been confined to us, the real culprits.” ‘“‘Fvelyn never told me a word about all this,” said Miss Agate, with a tone of reproach in her voice. ‘Why should she?” asked Philip; ‘there was really nothing to tell. I don’t suppose she set much store by her interview with the woman, and Miss Evelyn knew very little of subsequent events, for my father did not choose that a young lady, a guest in his house, should be worried by hearing of this kind of thing.” ‘Evelyn seemed to enjoy her visit to Coltburn so thoroughly,” said Miss Agate. ‘The only trouble she alluded to, was some alarm of people—burglars, I thought—lurking about the house at night. Do you think that had anything to do with this fortune-telling affair ? ” “That we cannot tell,” Philip answered, briskly. ‘‘'That is exactly what we are trying to find out. We have our own suspicions, and have communicated them to the police.” “Tf this all originates in that fortune-teller,” said Miss Agate, “‘it is probably only a vulgar plot to mystify and defraud. Yet one gets timid. Especially with Mary Davies, weeping and wailing, and declaring that there is a curse over Ravenstoke and ———” she paused, suddenly remembering Frank. So she broke off with a question : “Do you really think I need not be afraid ?” Frank blushed to the forehead. ‘Thinking constantly over these mysteries, he was beginning to see a certain method in them. He did not forget the message that had been found with the buried gold, nor yet the witch’s hints during his personal interview with her. “I don't think there is any fear,” he said, hesitatingly. “The anonymous letter to—my aunt’s governess, was in much the same strain. She had happened to pass through Ravenstoke once, and had seen a figure, which it appears passes for our family ghost. ‘The letter warned her that such a sight boded special ill to anybody not of the Raven race.” Miss Agate mused. ‘‘ That same cry of danger at Raven!” she said. ‘‘And, of course, Evelyn is not of the Raven race. But then you don’t believe in the ghost at all, Mr. Raven, do you ?” “It seems there can be no mistake about the appearance of a COMmicoooks (C©)