"When the jewels went elsewhere, he was probably on the point of giving
you up. I judge that from certain letters of yours in that telegraph
cipher which I found in his room.

"Then he wormed his plan for making you rich. He managed the robberies
at the house with the aid of John Gilder and one or two of that
spiritualistic gang whom he smuggled into the house.

"He did everything to increase his uncle's delusion. It was he who put
Colonel Richmond again in the hands of that medium."

"I supposed that that affair was all over," said Mrs. Stevens; "both the
colonel and I had disapproved of it."

"Annie O'Neil," said Nick, turning to the servant, "a full confession
from you is what we now require. It may save you from prison.

"We know that you managed the affair from this end. It was you who put
the jewels where they were found, after they had been given you by
Horace. It was you--catch her!"

This last exclamation was addressed to Patsy. The girl was wavering as
if she would fall.

Before Patsy could reach her she sank sobbing to the floor. She
proceeded to pour out an incoherent confession, in which little was
clear but the name of Horace Richmond, and the fact that the girl "loved
him still."

"I've been waiting for this," said Horace, with a brutal sneer. "Trust a
woman and lose the game. Well, it's all up. I loved you, Millie, but not
enough to marry you without the jewels. So I schemed for the transfer,
and I have failed."

"It was Annie O'Neil whom you followed last night, Patsy," said Nick.
"Who was the men?"

"John Gilder," gasped the terrified girl.

"And you played ghost?"

"Yes, sir."

"But how about my shooting?" asked Patsy. "How does Annie O'Neil happen
to be alive?"

"Read that from Chick," said Nick, producing a paper. "He's made some
discoveries in the colonel's house to-day while we were all away.

"He's found the ghost. It seems that this girl was inside of a hollow
dummy.

"She stood over a trap door. Just as soon as she had shown her face, she
dropped the veil, and went through the trap."

"The dummy still continued to stand there, and you shot at it. Two of
your bullets flattened on its steel braces. The rest went through.

"John Gilder flashed the light. When he turned it off, the dummy was
hauled down through the trap, and hidden in a place that neither you nor
I found, Patsy."

Colonel Richmond seemed to be in a trance.

"But the mysterious force," he said, at last