at he was obliged to have
necklace and tin case buried together in his back garden! To have forced
a lawyer into such extreme measures was certainly a "score" for the
ghost!

A few months later, I met the heroine of the story at a friend's house
at tea, and speaking of her relation, who had married a Swedish wife,
and whom I had met in Gottenburg, I alluded discreetly to the story of
the blue necklace.

My companion at once endorsed it _in toto_, and did not seem at all
annoyed by the fact that her cousin had mentioned it to me. I remember
that Mrs Romilly "laid the cards" for me, with astonishing success, and
told me she had learnt the mystic lore from an old Finnish nurse, who
had been brought over from Finland by her own Swedish grandfather when
quite a young girl, and had lived in the family until her death. She
assured me that the Finns were specially gifted in all kinds of gipsy
lore.

From Stockholm we paid a visit to Russia, and in St Petersburg I had my
first personal experience since leaving home.

We had engaged, as courier during our stay in the city, a German who had
lived there for forty years, named Kuentze, I think.

We were staying at the Hotel de France, and this man told me one day
that a celebrated French _modiste_ had rooms in our hotel, having come
there to show her beautiful Parisian costumes, and to take orders as
usual from the Russian Royal Family and Ladies of the Court. He also
mentioned the Frenchwoman's recent misfortune in hearing--since her
arrival in Russia--that her trusted manager in Paris had disappeared
suddenly, carrying away with him 100,000 francs.

Two nights later I had gone to bed as usual about ten-thirty P.M., and
must have slept for nearly four hours, when I awoke feeling the heat
very oppressive. It was almost the end of June at the time. Getting out
of bed to open my window still farther, I gazed down upon the courtyard
which it overlooked, noting the absolute stillness of the house and the
hot, oppressive air outside.

Suddenly this stillness was rent by the most horrible and appalling
shrieks! Peal after peal rang out. I have never heard anything so
ghastly nor so blood-curdling either before or since. For a moment it
seemed that one _must_ be dreaming. What horrors, to justify such awful
shrieks, could be taking place at this quiet hour and in this quiet,
respectable hotel?

Nothing less than murder suggested itself to me, and I quickly crossed
the room, and