as evident that he had been some time making up
his mind, and was now doggedly determined to carry out his purpose.
Finding it impossible to do anything else, we wished him good luck, at
the same time giving him a shilling and some loose coppers, which was
all the money we had in our pockets.

Having found the doctor's parcel, we returned to the pony carriage, and
drove some little distance on our homeward way without speaking. It is
probable, however, that the thoughts of both of us were busy with the
same subject.

"I wonder if your uncle is going out of his mind," I said at length.

"More likely some deep dodge of his, I fancy," returned Miles. "Don't
you see that he arranged that second visit of Tom's to the parlour just
to judge what he'd done the time before? If the lad was inquisitive
and had pried about once, he'd probably do so again. Still, what's the
meaning of it all I've no idea."

CHAPTER VI.

A MAD PRANK.

Time has been called "the great healer;" and as the term ran on Miles
gradually regained a measure of his former high spirits, and became
more his old bright self again. The thought, however, that at the end
of the half he would leave school and we should part, perhaps for ever,
hung over us like a cloud, rendered all the heavier and darker by the
consciousness on my friend's part that his prospects in life had
undergone a great change, and that his future was uncertain.

"It's all very well," he burst out one day, "for Uncle Nicholas to say
that he would rather have the matter settled amicably. As I said
before, he means to get the whole estate before he's finished."

"Old villain!" I answered; "I hate his very look! I hope, if he does
go to Coverthorne, that the ghost will haunt him, and drive him away
again. Did it sing any more after I left?"

"I don't know," answered Miles abruptly, as though the subject was one
to which he did not care to refer. "I don't think I've been inside the
room since we were there together. I suppose I'm a coward, but I don't
mind owning that that unearthly row gives me the creeps, and I daresay
it would you too if you were to hear it as I have, sometimes, when
passing down the passage at night."

We did not pursue the subject any further. Indeed, the thought may
have occurred to me that my own courage had ebbed away rather fast the
last time I had listened to those strange sounds; and such being the
case, I could hardly afford to rally my frie