Then he produced a couple of apples and a penknife and
proceeded to pare and offer me one.

"Found 'em in the pantry," he said, biting into one. "I belong to the
apple society. Eat one apple every day and keep healthy!" He stopped and
stared intently at the apple. "I reckon I got a worm that time," he
said, with less ardor.

"I'll get something to wash him down," I offered, rising, but he waved
me back to my stair.

"Not on your life," he said with dignity. "Let him walk. How are things
going up-stairs?"

"You didn't happen to be up there a little while ago, did you?" I
questioned in turn.

"No. I've been kept busy trying to sit tight where I am. Why?"

"Some one came into my room and wakened me," I explained. "I heard a
racket and when I got up I found a shell that I had put on the door-sill
to keep the door open, in the middle of the room. I stepped on it."

He examined a piece of apple before putting it in his mouth. Then he
turned a pair of shrewd eyes on me.

"That's funny," he said. "Anything in the room disturbed?"

"Nothing."

"Where's the shell now?"

"On the mantel. I didn't want to step on it again."

He thought for a minute, but his next remark was wholly facetious.

"No. I guess you won't step on it up there. Like the old woman: she
says, 'Motorman, if I put my foot on the rail will I be electrocuted?'
And he says, 'No, madam, not unless you put your other foot on the
trolley wire.'"

I got up impatiently. There was no humor in the situation that night for
me.

"Some one had been in the room," I reiterated. "The door was closed,
although I had left it open."

He finished his apple and proceeded with great gravity to drop the
parings down the immaculate register in the floor beside his chair.
Then--

"I've only got one business here, Mr. Knox," he said in an undertone,
"and you know what that is. But if it will relieve your mind of the
thought that there was anything supernatural about your visitor, I'll
tell you that it was Mr. Wardrop, and that to the best of my belief he
was in your room, not once, but twice, in the last hour and a half. As
far as that shell goes, it was I that kicked it, having gone up without
my shoes."

I stared at him blankly.

"What could he have wanted?" I exclaimed. But with his revelation,
Davidson's interest ceased; he drew the blanket up around his shoulders
and shivered.

"Search me," he said and yawned.

I went back to bed, but not to sleep. I de