ster in her flight.

"Stop! stop! I'm not a ghost, my good woman," cried out the lieutenant;
"I only wish that you would tell me where I could find any of the
gentlemen, and I would break their heads for them, for not a wink of
sleep have they allowed me for the last two hours."

The captain and Tom having brought lights, search was made throughout
Mr Ludlow's room, and in the other rooms where the noises had been
heard, but not a trace of any one having been in them could be
discovered. Still, both the captain and magistrate were convinced that
not only one person, but several, must have been in the house during the
night for nearly two hours, and probably were still there, for the front
and the side doors were closed, and no windows were found open by which
they could have escaped. The lieutenant was rather more doubtful as to
the character of their visitors, and Becky and Tom shook their heads and
declared that they did not believe mere mortals could play such pranks,
and get away without being discovered. "If my visitor was a ghost, we
shall find the pistol bullet, but I rather suspect that the fellow
withdrew it while I was asleep, or he would not have ventured to have
remained in the room after he knew I had a fire-arm," acutely observed
Mr Ludlow.

On examining the room, not a trace of a bullet could be discovered,
though a piece of paper in which it had been wrapped was picked up
unburnt. This confirmed the magistrate in the opinion that his surmise
was correct, and it proved also the daring character of the people who
had played the trick. How they had managed to get into the Tower was
the question. The magistrate was puzzled, so was everybody else.
Neither the captain nor Tom, who knew the building better than anybody
else, could solve the mystery. Charley, hearing their voices, came out
of his room, and Stephen crawled out of his, still pale and trembling,
and both had accounts to give of their ghostly visitant. Stephen gave
the most dreadful account of the ghost he had seen, of the spiritual
character of which he seemed to have no doubt. "Tut! boy, ghosts, if
there were such things, would not spend their time in trying to shake a
stout gentleman like myself out of his cot, in drawing bullets out of
pistols, in using dark lanterns, and groaning and growling with the
rough voices of boatswain's mates," exclaimed Lieutenant Dugong, with a
look of contempt at poor Stephen. "The people who have been