s face recalled some
of her spirit, and, glancing down at her hand in which a sheet of paper
was visible, she asked for Mr. Spielhagen.

"I've got the formula," she said. "If you will bring him, I will hand it
over to him here."

Not a word of her adventure; nor so much as one glance at Mr. Van
Broecklyn, standing far back in the shadows.

Nor was she more communicative, when, the formula restored and
everything made right with Mr. Spielhagen, they all came together again
in the library for a final word. "I was frightened by the silence
and the darkness, and so cried out," she explained in answer to their
questions. "Any one would have done so who found himself alone in
so musty a place," she added, with an attempt at lightsomeness which
deepened the pallor on Mr. Van Broecklyn's cheek, already sufficiently
noticeable to have been remarked upon by more than one.

"No ghosts?" laughed Mr. Cornell, too happy in the return of his hopes
to be fully sensible of the feelings of those about him. "No whispers
from impalpable lips or touches from spectre hands? Nothing to explain
the mystery of that room long shut up that even Mr. Van Broecklyn
declares himself ignorant of its secret?"

"Nothing," returned Violet, showing her dimples in full force now.

"If Miss Strange had any such experiences--if she has anything to tell
worthy of so marked a curiosity, she will tell it now," came from the
gentleman just alluded to, in tones so stern and strange that all show
of frivolity ceased on the instant. "Have you anything to tell, Miss
Strange?"

Greatly startled, she regarded him with widening eyes for a moment, then
with a move towards the door, remarked, with a general look about her:

"Mr. Van Broecklyn knows his own house, and doubtless can relate its
histories if he will. I am a busy little body who having finished my
work am now ready to return home, there to wait for the next problem
which an indulgent fate may offer me."

She was near the threshold--she was about to take her leave, when
suddenly she felt two hands fall on her shoulder, and turning, met the
eyes of Mr. Van Broecklyn burning into her own.

"You saw!" dropped in an almost inaudible whisper from his lips.

The shiver which shook her answered him better than any word.

With an exclamation of despair, he withdrew his hands, and facing the
others now standing together in a startled group, he said, as soon as he
could recover some of his self-possession: