y" sentiments. He attempts to turn on more light, but finds this
is impossible. He shifts uneasily, finally picking up a paper lying on a
small table within reach. Date and title startle him. How came this copy
of _London Press_ of such date in possession of Sir Charles or Agnes?
Paul's hand shakes as he glances over the paper's contents. He beholds,
under heavily marked red lines, the account of the Thames tragedy.

Just then the door opens from an adjoining room. Draped in seaweed, the
form of Alice Webster appears, blood oozing from her bruised temple,
long damp tresses clinging to her neck and face. With uplifted hand, the
apparition slowly advances toward the cowering Paul, as if to strike.
Paralyzed with terror, the guilty wretch falls upon the floor, begging
for mercy. Slowly the ghost, without change of mien, passes backward
through the open door, disappearing in rayless darkness.

[Illustration: "WITH UPLIFTED HAND THE APPARITION SLOWLY ADVANCED TOWARD
THE COWERING PAUL, AS IF TO STRIKE."]

Paul recovers, and rising resumes his seat. Straining his bewildered
gaze, he sees that the door is shut. He is alone. Everything is as
before. It must have been an hallucination, but how dreadfully real the
appearance of drowned Alice Webster! Where is Agnes? Soon he hears a
voice in the next room.

With solemn inflection it repeats from Hood's "Eugene Aram" these
fearful lines:

"'Nothing but lifeless flesh and bone,
That could not do me ill;
And yet I feared him all the more
For lying there so still:
There was a manhood in his look
That murder could not kill.

* * * * *

"'So wills the fierce avenging sprite
Till blood for blood atones.
Ay, tho' he's buried in a cave,
And trodden down with stones,
And years have rotted off his flesh,
The world shall see his bones.'"

There is a minute's pause.

"Wonder what detains Mr. Lanier!"

Tremblingly Paul opens the door between the rooms, and there are many
surprised remarks, followed by explanations.

Agnes says: "I heard the bell, and supposed you entered the
sitting-room. I continued my toilet, and was delayed by missing articles
of apparel. The new servant, in her zeal, disarranged everything.
Without directions from me about your expected appearance, the servant
ushered you by mistake into my uncle's private room."

The bewitching manner and artless