prise to
find the hall window, which reached to the veranda floor, open; and
he could see the stars shining above the dark green foliage of the
trees on the lawn without.

At the same instant there swept over him a nervous fear, and he
reached for his deer gun instinctively. Then there arose from the
Davenport coffin a slouching unkempt form, the fine bright eyes of
which, as the last rays of the moonlight fell on them, were the eyes
of his dead cousin, Captain Tom, and it held out its hands pleadingly
to him and tenderly and with much effort said:

"_Grandfather, forgive. I've come back again._"

Travis's heart seemed to freeze tightly. He tried to breathe--he only
gasped--and the corners of his mouth tightened and refused to open.
He felt the blood rush up from around his loins, and leave him
paralyzed and weak. In sheer desperation he threw the gun to his
shoulder, and the next instant he would have fired the load into the
face of the thing with its voice of the dead, had not something burst
on his head with a staggering, overpowering blow, and despite his
efforts to stand, his knees gave way beneath him and it seemed
pleasant for him to lie prone upon the floor....

When he awakened an hour afterwards, he sat up, bewildered. His gun
lay beside him, but the window was closed securely and bolted. No
night air came in. The Davenport and pillow were there as before. His
head ached and there was a bruised place over his ear. He walked into
his own room and lit the lamp.

"I may have fallen and struck my head," he said, bewildered with the
strangeness of it all. "I may have," he repeated--"but if I didn't
see Tom Travis's ghost to-night there is no need to believe one's
senses."

He opened the door and let in two setters which fawned upon him and
licked his hand. All his nervousness vanished.

"No one knows the comfort of a dog's company," he said, "who does not
love a dog?"

Then he bathed his face and head and went to sleep.

It was after midnight when Jack Bracken led Captain Tom in and put
him to bed.

"A close shave for you, Cap'n Tom," he said--"I struck just in time.
I'll not leave you another night with the door unlocked." Then: "But
poor fellow--how can we blame him for wandering off, after all those
years, and trying to get back again to his boyhood home."

CHAPTER XII

A MIDNIGHT GUARD

Jack Bracken rolled himself in his blanket on the cot, placed in the
room next to Captain Tom, and