s.

Miss Forbes leaned toward the young man.

"Do you see a light in that lower story?" she whispered.

"No," said the man. "Where?"

After a pause the girl answered: "I can't see it now, either. Maybe I
didn't see it. It was very faint--just a glow--it might have been
phosphorescence."

"It might," said the man. He gave a shrug of distaste. "The whole
place is certainly old enough and decayed enough."

For a brief space they stood quite still, and at once, accentuated by
their own silence, the noises of the night grew in number and
distinctness. A slight wind had risen and the boughs of the pines
rocked restlessly, making mournful complaint; and at their feet the
needles dropping in a gentle desultory shower had the sound of rain in
springtime. From every side they were startled by noises they could
not place. Strange movements and rustlings caused them to peer sharply
into the shadows; footsteps, that seemed to approach, and, then, having
marked them, skulk away; branches of bushes that suddenly swept
together, as though closing behind some one in stealthy retreat.
Although they knew that in the deserted garden they were alone, they
felt that from the shadows they were being spied upon, that the
darkness of the place was peopled by malign presences.

The young man drew a cigar from his case and put it unlit between his
teeth.

"Cheerful, isn't it?" he growled. "These dead leaves make it damp as a
tomb. If I've seen one ghost, I've seen a dozen. I believe we're
standing in the Carey family's graveyard."

"I thought you were brave," said the girl.

"I am," returned the young man, "very brave. But if you had the most
wonderful girl on earth to take care of in the grounds of a madhouse at
two in the morning, you'd be scared too."

He was abruptly surprised by Miss Forbes laying her hand firmly upon
his shoulder, and turning him in the direction of the house. Her face
was so near his that he felt the uneven fluttering of her breath upon
his cheek.

"There is a man," she said, "standing behind that tree."

By the faint light of the stars he saw, in black silhouette, a shoulder
and head projecting from beyond the trunk of a huge oak, and then
quickly withdrawn. The owner of the head and shoulder was on the side
of the tree nearest to themselves, his back turned to them, and so
deeply was his attention engaged that he was unconscious of their
presence.

"He is watching the house," said the gi