on rows of drawers underneath. A wide-armed chair stood before the desk,
just as it must have been used by the old doctor. The room was lined to
the ceiling with cases of books and cupboards. Nobody had disturbed the
doctor's possessions after his death. No younger physician had "taken
over" his practice.

'Phemie went near enough to see that the desk, and the cupboards as well,
were locked. There was a long case standing like an overgrown clock-case
in one corner. The candle-light was reflected in the front of this case
as though the door was a mirror.

But when 'Phemie approached it she saw that it was merely a glass door
with a curtain of black cambric hung behind it. She was curious to know
what was in the case. It had no lock and key and she stretched forth a
tentative hand and turned the old-fashioned button which held it closed.

The door seemed fairly to spring open, as though pushed from within,
and, as it swung outward and the flickering candle-light penetrated its
interior, 'Phemie heard a sudden surprising sound.

Somewhere--behind her, above, below, in the air, all about her--was a
sigh! Nay, it was more than a sigh; it was a mighty and unmistakable yawn!

And on the heels of this yawn a voice exclaimed:

"I'm getting mighty tired of this!"

'Phemie flashed her gaze back to the open case. Fear held her by the
throat and choked back the shriek she would have been glad to utter.
For, dangling there in the case, its eyeless skull on a level with her
own face, hung an articulated skeleton; and to 'Phemie Bray's excited
comprehension it seemed as though both the yawn and the apt speech which
followed it, had proceeded from the grinning jaws of the skull!

CHAPTER IX

MORNING AT HILLCREST

The bang of the door, closed by the draught when 'Phemie had opened
the way into the east wing, _had_ aroused Lyddy. She came to herself--to
a consciousness of her strange surroundings--with a sharpness of
apprehension that set every nerve in her body to tingling.

"'Phemie! what is it?" she whispered.

Then, rolling over on the rustling straw mattress, she reached for her
sister's hand. But 'Phemie was not there.

"'Phemie!" Lyddy cried loudly, sitting straight up in bed. She knew she
was alone in the room, and hopped out of bed, shivering. She groped for
her robe and her slippers. Then she sped swiftly into the kitchen.

She knew where the lamp and the match-box were. Quickly she had the lamp
a-light a