past her and out to the servants' dining-room. As he entered
with Beth at his heels, Mrs. Bergen, the housekeeper, turned in from the
open door to the kitchen garden, clinging to the jamb, her lips
mumbling, as though she were continuing a conversation. But her round
face, usually the color and texture of a well ripened peach, was the
color of putty, and seemed suddenly to have grown old and haggard. Her
eyes through her metal-rimmed spectacles seemed twice their size and
stared at Peter as though they saw through him and beyond. She faltered
at the door-jamb and then with an effort reached a chair, into which she
sank gasping.

Beth was kneeling at her side in a moment, looking up anxiously into her
startled eyes.

"Why, what is it, Aunt Tillie?" she whispered quickly. "What it is? Tell
me."

The coincidence was too startling. Could the same Thing that had
frightened McGuire have frightened the housekeeper too? Peter rushed
past her and out of the open door. It was dark outside and for a moment
he could see nothing. Then objects one by one asserted themselves, the
orderly rows of vegetable plants in the garden, the wood-box by the
door, the shrubbery at the end of the portico, the blue spruce tree
opposite, the loom of the dark and noncommittal garage. He knew that one
of his men was in the trees opposite the side porch and another around
the corner of the kitchen, in the hedge, but he did not want to raise a
hue and cry unless it was necessary. What was this Thing that created
terror at sight? He peered this way and that, aware of an intense
excitement, in one hand his revolver and in the other his police
whistle. But he saw no object move, and the silence was absolute. In a
moment--disappointed--he hurried back to the servants' dining-room.

Mrs. Bergen sat dazed in her chair, while Beth, who had brought her a
glass of water, was making her drink of it.

"Tell me, what is it?" Beth was insisting.

"Nothing--nothing," murmured the woman.

"But there is----"

"No, dearie----"

"Are you sick?"

"I don't feel right. Maybe--the heat----"

"But your eyes look queer----"

"Do they----?" The housekeeper tried to smile.

"Yes. Like they had seen----"

A little startled as she remembered the mystery of the house, Beth cast
her glance into the darkness outside the open door.

"You _are_--frightened!" she said.

"No, no----"

"What was it you saw, Mrs. Bergen," asked Peter gently.

He was just at her sid