rom her prey, has
forced her to remove, from the garments clothing her borrowed body,
all traces of the deed, and has cast her out again to the pit of
abomination where her headless trunk was thrown by the third Baron
Lashmore!

"Lady Lashmore's brain retains certain memories. They have been
received at the moment when possession has taken place and at the
moment when the control has been cast out again. They thus are
memories of some secret cavern near Dhoon Castle, where that headless
but deathless body lies, and memories of the poignant moment when the
vampire has been dragged back, her 'thirst unslaked,' by the ruling
Will."

"Merciful God!" muttered Robert Cairn, "Merciful God, can such things
be!"

"They can be--they are! Two ways have occurred to me of dealing with
the matter," continued Dr. Cairn quietly. "One is to find that cavern
and to kill, in the occult sense, by means of a stake, the vampire who
lies there; the other which, I confess, might only result in the
permanent 'possession' of Lady Lashmore--is to get at the power which
controls this disembodied spirit--kill Antony Ferrara!"

Robert Cairn went to the sideboard, and poured out brandy with a
shaking hand.

"What's his object?" he whispered.

Dr. Cairn shrugged his shoulders.

"Lady Lashmore would be the wealthiest widow in society," he replied.

"_He_ will know now," continued the younger man unsteadily, "that you
are up against him. Have you--"

"I have told Lord Lashmore to lock, at night, not only his outer door
but also that of his dressing-room. For the rest--?" he dropped into
an easy-chair,--"I cannot face the facts, I--"

The telephone bell rang.

Dr. Cairn came to his feet as though he had been electrified; and as
he raised the receiver to his ear, his son knew, by the expression on
his face, from where the message came and something of its purport.

"Come with me," was all that he said, when he had replaced the
instrument on the table.

They went out together. It was already past midnight, but a cab was
found at the corner of Half-Moon Street, and within the space of five
minutes they were at Lord Lashmore's house.

Excepting Chambers, Lord Lashmore's valet, no servants were to be
seen.

"They ran away, sir, out of the house," explained the man, huskily,
"when it happened."

Dr. Cairn delayed for no further questions, but raced upstairs, his
son close behind him. Together they burst into Lord Lashmore's
bedroom. But