uch he
knows.

"His help wasn't worth anything. I will back myself against him any day.

"I made sure that you were only stunned, and would come to all right.
Then I hurried down to that room and began my search.

"Well, you know that room. It is simply built up of traps and panels. A
man can go through the floor or the walls almost anywhere.

"My job would have been a good deal easier if there'd been less of that
secret machinery.

"When there are five hundred ways in which a thing could have been done,
it's pretty hard to say which one is right.

"There's a trap pretty nearly in the spot where the figure stood.
Probably she came up and went down through that.

"But how about my shooting? There's the point.

"I took a direct line from the place where I was to the trap.

"Following that line, I came to the screen in front of the fire-place.

"In that screen, and about four and a half feet from the floor, were
three bullets from my pistol. The other two are not there.

"Then, as I figure it out, that ghost has carried them away.

"My shooting was pretty good, considering the light. The three bullets
were in the bigness of a watch-crystal.

"I feel sure that the other two were aimed just as well. If that's true,
then one of the conspirators has some mighty serious wounds. Three went
through her, and she stopped two.

"But there isn't a drop of blood to be found. The passage under the trap
I have explored thoroughly.

"I can't find a human being or a trace of blood or any of the machinery
which they must have used for the light or the ghost.

"Of course, the failure to find traces of the conspirators is not
strange. These passages are so long, and so intricate, and so mighty
well gotten up that I haven't had time to go through them all.

"But the wounded person is another matter. Where she is hidden is more
than I can imagine."

"I hope it wasn't Miss Stevens," said Nick.

"You called her name."

"Yes; I thought the chances were that it was she, but, of course, I
couldn't recognize her in that rig for certain."

"Well, if it was she, of course, we shall find it out. It's impossible
for her to carry those two bullets around with her and not show it."

Nick was dressed by this time. They went out into the hall of the new
part. Nick had been taken to a room there, instead of being carried to
that which had been assigned to him in the old part of the house.

From below came the sound of voices. The