er lightly, in a wholly commonplace voice. He had not
been, however, half asleep. The frozen face I had seen was of complete
wakefulness.

"A man, you say--down by the lagoon?" Weldon asked.

"Yes. Of course there's always a chance for a mistake. Probably it
wouldn't be anything anyway--just one of the men getting a little air.
Watch a minute--maybe you'll see him again."

We watched in silence, and listened to one another's breathing. But the
faint shadows, in that starlit vista, were unwavering.

"It wasn't likely anything----" Van Hope said apologetically. "I was
thinking, though, that any stranger ought to be investigated----"

"He had, too," Weldon agreed. "Not just any stranger. Any one who goes
walking down there in the darkness ought to be questioned--whether he's
one of us or not. But are you sure you saw anything?"

"Not sure at all. I thought I did, though. I thought I saw him step,
distinctly, through a rift in the trees. Excuse me for bothering you."

None of us felt any embarrassment on Van Hope's account, or any
superciliousness if he had been unnecessarily alarmed. It was wholly
natural, this third night of three, to wonder and be stirred by any
moving thing in the darkened gardens.

But we waited and watched in vain. There were no cries from the shore of
the lagoon. The silence remained unbroken, and after awhile the thought
turned to other channels.

Van Hope rose at last, hurled his cigar stub to the lawns and for a
breath stood watching its glowing end pale and die. The disappearance of
his old friend had gone hard with him. You could see it in the stoop of
his shoulders. He looked several years older.

"Nothing to do now--but go to bed," he commented quietly. "Maybe we can
get some sleep to-night."

"The third night's the charm," Nopp answered grimly. "How do we know but
that before this night is over we'll be gathered out here again." He
paused, and we tried to smile at him in the darkness. Nopp was speaking
with a certain grim humor, yet whatever his intentions, none of us got
the idea that he was jesting. "It's worked two nights--why not three.
I'd believe anything could happen at this goblin house----"

We listened to him with relief. It was some way good for our spirits to
have one of us speak out what we had all been thinking and had strained
so hard to hide. Nor did we think less of him for his frankness. We knew
at first, and we knew now, that Nopp's nerve was as good or better