m afraid Sir Everard's slumbers will be rather
disturbed to-night."

The last yellow gleam of the dying day was gone, and a sickly, pallid
moon glimmered dully among drifts of scudding black clouds. An icy
blast wailed up from the sea, and the rocking trees were like dryad
specters in writhing agony. The distant Beech Walk looked black and
grim and ghostly in the weird light.

A great clock high up in a windy turret struck eight. A moment after
the door of my lady's dressing-room opened. A dark, shrouded figure
emerged, flitted swiftly down the long gallery, down the stair-way, and
vanished.

Ten minutes later Edwards, yawning forlornly, still in the entrance
hall, beheld Miss Silver coming toward him with an anxious face, a
large shawl thrown over her head.

"Going out again?" the valet exclaimed. "And such a nasty night, too.
You are fond of walking, Miss S., and no mistake."

"I'm not going for a walk," said Sybilla. "I am going to look for a
locket I lost this afternoon. I was out in the park, in the direction
of the Beech Walk, and there I must have dropped it."

"Better wait until to-morrow," suggested Edwards. "The wind's 'owling
through the trees, and it's colder than the Harctic regions. Better
wait."

"I can not. The locket was a present, and I value it exceedingly. I
thought of asking you to accompany me, but as it is so cold perhaps you
had better not."

"Oh, I'll go with pleasure!" said Mr. Edwards. "If you can stand the
cold, I can, I dessay. Wait till I get my 'at and hovercoat--I won't
be a minute."

Miss Silver waited. Mr. Edwards reappeared in a twinkling.

"'Adn't I better fetch a lantern?" he suggested. "It will be
himpossible to see it, heven if it should be there."

"No," said Sybilla. "The moon is shining, and the locket will glimmer
on the snow. Come!"

She took his arm, and they started at a brisk pace for the Beech Walk.
The ground, baked hard as iron, rang under their tread, and whether it
was the bitter blast or not, Mr. Edwards could not tell, but his
companion's face was flushed with a more brilliant glow, in the ghostly
moonlight, than he had ever before seen there.

They reached the long grove of magnificent copper-beeches, and just
without its entrance Miss Silver began searching for her lost locket.

"It is not here," said Sybilla. "Let us go further down----"

She paused at a sudden gesture of her companion.

"Hush!" he said. "There is some one