l
laugh; and, startled by the sound of that laugh as if it came from some
one else, I paused, my hand on the door, and asked myself: "Do I dream?
Am I awake? And if awake what am I to say to the common place mortal I
am about to rouse? Speak to him of a phantom! Speak to him of some weird
spell over this strong frame! Speak to him of a mystic trance in which
has been stolen what he confided to me, without my knowledge! What will
he say? What should I have said a few days ago to any man who told such
a tale to me?" I did not wait to resolve these questions. I entered the
room. There was Strahan sound asleep on his bed. I shook him roughly. He
started up, rubbed his eyes. "You, Allen,--you! What the deuce?--what 's
the matter?"

"Strahan, I have been robbed!--robbed of the manuscript you lent me. I
could not rest till I had told you."

"Robbed, robbed! Are you serious?"

By this time Strahan had thrown off the bed-clothes, and sat upright,
staring at me.

And then those questions which my mind had suggested while I was
standing at his door repeated themselves with double force. Tell this
man, this unimaginative, hard-headed, raw-boned, sandy-haired North
countryman,--tell this man a story which the most credulous school-girl
would have rejected as a fable! Impossible!

"I fell asleep," said I, colouring and stammering, for the slightest
deviation from truth was painful to me, "and-and--when I awoke--the
manuscript was gone. Some one must have entered and committed the
theft--"

"Some one entered the house at this hour of the night and then only
stolen a manuscript which could be of no value to him! Absurd! If
thieves have come in it must be for other objects,--for plate, for
money. I will dress; we will see!"

Strahan hurried on his clothes, muttering to himself and avoiding my
eye. He was embarrassed. He did not like to say to an old friend what
was on his mind; but I saw at once that he suspected I had resolved to
deprive him of the manuscript, and had invented a wild tale in order to
conceal my own dishonesty.

Nevertheless, he proceeded to search the house. I followed him in
silence, oppressed with my own thoughts, and longing for solitude in
my own chamber. We found no one, no trace of any one, nothing to
excite suspicion. There were but two female servants sleeping in the
house,--the old housekeeper, and a country girl who assisted her. It was
not possible to suspect either of these persons; but in the co