ed, pointing at the door. "_He's_
there!"

"Who was the man, Willem?" entreated McPherson. "Come, lad! Out with
it!"

"Quick, Willem!" supplemented Peter Grimm.

Kathrien, acting on an unexplained impulse as Willem stared
terror-stricken at the door, hastened toward the vestibule.

"No! No!" shrieked the boy in anguished falsetto as he divined what she
was about to do. "Please, _please_ don't! _Don't!_ _Don't_ let him in.
I'm afraid of him. He made Anne Marie cry."

But Kathrien's hand was already at the latch. She threw the outer door
wide open. Frederik Grimm stood on the threshold, his head still a
little forward. His ear had evidently been pressed close to the panel.

"You're sure Frederik's the man?" almost shouted McPherson.

"I won't tell! I won't tell! _I won't tell!_" screamed the boy, taking
one look at Frederik, then tearing loose from McPherson's restraining
hand and dashing up the stairs.

"I must go to bed now," sobbed Willem from the gallery above. "_He_ told
me to."

He ran into his own room and shut the door quickly behind him.

"You're a good boy, Willem!" Peter Grimm called approvingly after him.

The cloud of grief was gone from the Dead Man's face, leaving it
wondrously bright and young. With no trace of anxiety, he turned to
witness the consummation of his labours.

Frederik Grimm was standing, nerveless, dazed, where Kathrien's
impulsive opening of the door had disclosed him. Dully, he stared from
one to another of the three who confronted him. It was Kathrien who
first spoke. Pointing toward the photograph that still lay on the desk,
she said:

"Frederik, you have heard from Anne Marie."

His lips parted in denial. Then he saw the picture, started slightly,
and lapsed into a sullen silence.

"You have had a letter from her," pursued Kathrien. "You burned it. And
you tore that picture so that we would not recognise it. Why did you
tell Marta that you had had no message--no news? You told her so,
_since_ that letter and photograph came. You went to Anne Marie's home,
too. Why did you tell me you had never seen her since she left here? Why
did you lie to me? _Why do you hate her child?_"

Frederik made one dogged effort to regain what he had so bewilderingly
lost.

"Are--are you going to believe what that brat says?" he muttered.

"No," retorted Kathrien. "But I'm going to find out for myself. I am
going to find out where Anne Marie is before I marry you. And I am going
to le