ector replied; "and I think that I have shown often enough
that I am not wanting in courage to perform my duty, no matter how
serious the consequences may be. But only very young men act without
any prospects of success, because they are carried away by their
feelings. When you came to me the first time, I was obliged to refuse
your request for assistance, but to-day your request is just and
reasonable. It is now eight o'clock; I shall expect you in two hours'
time, here in my office. At present, all you have to do is to hold your
tongue; everything else is my affair."

As soon as it was dark, four men got into a closed carriage in the yard
of the police-office, and were driven in the direction of the village
of S----. Their carriage, however, did not enter the village, but
stopped at the edge of a small wood in the immediate neighborhood. Here
all four alighted: the police director, accompanied by the young
Latitudinarian, a police sergeant, and an ordinary policeman, the
latter however, dressed in plain clothes.

"The first thing for us to do is to examine the locality carefully,"
said the police director. "It is eleven o'clock and the exorcisers of
ghosts will not arrive before midnight, so we have time to look round
us, and to lay our plans."

The four men went to the churchyard, which lay at the end of the
village, near the little wood. Everything was as still as death, and
not a soul was to be seen. The sexton was evidently sitting in the
public house, for they found the door of his cottage locked, as well as
the door of the little chapel that stood in the middle of the
churchyard.

"Where is your mother's grave?" the police director asked. As there
were only a few stars visible, it was not easy to find it, but at last
they managed it, and the police director surveyed the neighborhood of
it.

"The position is not a very favorable one for us," he said at last;
"there is nothing here, not even a shrub, behind which we could hide."

But just then, the policeman reported that he had tried to get into the
sexton's hut through the door or a window, and that at last he had
succeeded in doing so by breaking open a square in a window which had
been mended with paper, that he had opened it and obtained possession
of the key, which he brought to the police director.

The plans were very quickly settled. The police director had the chapel
opened and went in with the young Latitudinarian; then he told the
police serge