his pocket. It seemed strange that it should run after its salt-water
ducking, but he reasoned that probably the works were not touched by the
salt water. His clothing had dried long ago, but he felt the need of a
change. However, he had taken a bath since reaching the hotel, and so
was in a measure comfortable.

There was a great deal to think of as he stood there in the gloom, but
the minutes dragged along like weeks. This sort of vigil was rather
nerve-trying. He was sure, now that he had time to think about it, that
some very little thing might account for the mystery. He began to think
that the footsteps had probably been made by some servant or by a
somnambulist. Sounds are very deceptive as to direction, as he more than
once had discovered. The footsteps might have been at some distance from
the corridor.

"But that doesn't explain what I saw and what Bart saw!" he muttered. "I
might have thought my eyes deceived me, but Bart saw it, too. That was
either Barney Mulloy, or some one who looks marvelously like him. If it
was really Barney, then the poor fellow is not dead! I sincerely hope we
shall find out that he was not killed. Perhaps the entire newspaper
report was based on a mistake. The papers are full of errors."

The sounds did not come again, and when it seemed almost useless to wait
longer for them, he returned to the room, where he found Bart watching
silently by the window.

"Seen anything?" he asked.

"No. Heard anything?"

"Not a thing."

"I didn't suppose you had, or I should have heard it, too."

"It will probably not reappear to-night."

"Well, I'm not in love with ghosts, but I have been wild to have the
thing pass along that walk again. It wouldn't get away from me this
time! I've planned just what to do."

"What?"

"I can reach that walk in three jumps from this window, and it would
take a lively ghost to get away from me. I was going right out there the
first glimpse I got of it."

"Then you're not afraid of ghosts?" laughed Frank, for there was
something amusing in his companion's manner.

"I might be, Merry, if there were any. But I've been thinking as I sat
here. I know I saw something, and that something was a man. He didn't
look so strong but that I could tumble him over easy enough. That was my
plan, and then we could see who it is. It couldn't have been Barney, for
all it looked so much like him."

As he spoke, he saw the ghostly figure again, but much farther away. Its