tely
jump to the conclusion that there was something in my private life that
I was keeping from her.

Almost all women, I have found, although not over-conscious themselves
of the charm and attraction of their husbands, are of the conviction
that these husbands exert a dangerous fascination over other women, and
that this charm, which does not reveal itself in the home circle, is
used abroad with occasionally disastrous effect.

My preoccupation, however, did not escape my wife, and she commented on
it at dinner.

"You are generally dull, Horace," she said, "but tonight you are
deadly."

After dinner I went into our reception room, which is not lighted unless
we are expecting guests, and peered out of the window. The detective, or
whoever he might be, was walking negligently up the street.

As that was the night of the third seance, I find that my record covers
the fact that Mrs. Dane was housecleaning, for which reason we had not
been asked to dinner, that my wife and I dined early, at six-thirty, and
that it was seven o'clock when Sperry called me by telephone.

"Can you come to my office at once?" he asked. "I dare say Mrs. Johnson
won't mind going to the Dane house alone."

"Is there anything new?"

"No. But I want to get into the Wells house again. Bring the keys."

"They were in the overcoat. It came back today, but the keys are
missing."

"Did you lock the back door?"

"I don't remember. No, of course not. I didn't have the keys."

"Then there's a chance," he observed, after a moment's pause. "Anyhow,
it's worth trying. Herbert told you about the stick?"

"Yes. I never had it, Sperry."

Fortunately, during this conversation my wife was upstairs dressing.
I knew quite well that she would violently oppose a second visit on my
part to the deserted house down the street. I therefore left a message
for her that I had gone on, and, finding the street clear, met Sperry at
his door-step.

"This is the last sitting, Horace," he explained, "and I feel we ought
to have the most complete possible knowledge, beforehand. We will be
in a better position to understand what comes. There are two or three
things we haven't checked up on."

He slipped an arm through mine, and we started down the street. "I'm
going to get to the bottom of this, Horace, old dear," he said.

"Remember, we're pledged to a psychic investigation only."

"Rats!" he said rudely. "We are going to find out who killed Arthur
Wells, and