nt, and
squeezed his electrically shocked arm. Then gingerly he picked up the
telephone, replaced the receiver, and turned away toward the window
seat.

Peter Grimm stood eyeing the telephone as if the man who had so lately
been at the other end of the wire were directly in front of him.

"You don't know it, Hicks," said the Dead Man quietly, "but you will
never carry this plan of yours through. We are going to meet very soon,
you and I."

As if in response to his strange prophecy, the telephone jangled once
more. Frederik returned to the desk and put the receiver to his ear.

"Hello!" he called. "Oh, it's you, Mr. Hicks? No, they didn't cut us
off. I thought you were through.--What?--A little louder, please. I
can't hear you very well.--What?--You're feeling ill? Oh, I'm
sorry.--What?--Oh, yes, it will do just as well to send your lawyer
instead, if you find you're too sick to make the journey. Your lawyer
will be empowered to attend to everything in your name, I
suppose?--Good.--Then we can close the deal to-night. At the hotel and
at the same time. All right. What did you say his name was?--Shelp?--All
right. Good-bye. I hope you'll feel much better in the morning, Mr.
Hicks."

He relighted his cigarette, humming a little tune under his breath as he
walked from the desk. His narrow face was very content.

"And that's the boy I loved and trusted!" said Peter Grimm, half aloud,
watching Frederik take his hat and umbrella from the rack and leave the
house. "I wonder if I am to unearth many more of my mistakes. I come
upon a new one at every turn."

His wandering gaze rested on the door of Kathrien's room, in the gallery
above. His lips parted in the old whimsical smile. Lifting his voice, he
gave the odd call that had for years been a signal to Kathrien of his
presence in the house and his desire to see her.

"_Ou-oo!_" rang out the familiar cry.

And, before its echoes could die away, Kathrien was out of her room and
at the stairhead. She stood there an instant, dazed, wondering, like
some one half-awakened from heavy sleep.

Looking down into the room below, she slowly descended the stairs.

"I thought some one called me," she said.

And though she spoke the words in her own brain and not from the lips,
Peter Grimm heard and answered her.

"You did," said he. "I called you."

Filled with a sense that she was not alone, yet seeing and hearing no
one, she came down into the seemingly vacant room. And,