head and shoulders at the
opposite window, the sash of which was raised. With an exclamation,
Lodloe sprang to his feet. His lamp had been turned down in order that
he might better enjoy the moonlight, but he could plainly see the man at
the window, who now spoke:

"Hold hard," said he; "don't get excited. There's nothing out of the
way. My name is Beam--Lanigan Beam. I tapped because I thought if I
spoke first you might jump out of the window, being turned in that
direction. May I come in?"

[Illustration: "DON'T GET EXCITED."]

Lodloe made no answer; his mind did not comprehend the situation; he
went to the window and looked out. The man was standing on the sharp
ridge of a roof which stretched from the tower to the rear portion of
the building. By reaching upward he was able to look into the window.

"Give me a hand," said the man, "and we'll consider matters inside. This
is a mighty ticklish place to stand on."

Lodloe had heard a good deal that evening about Lanigan Beam, and
although he was amazed at the appearance of that individual at this time
and place, he was ready and willing to make his acquaintance. Bracing
himself against the window-frame, he reached out his hand, and in a few
moments Mr. Beam had scrambled into the room. Lodloe turned up the wick
of his lamp, and by the bright light he looked at his visitor.

He saw a man rather long as to legs, and thin as to face, and dressed in
an easy-fitting suit of summer clothes.

"Take a seat," said Lodloe, "and tell me to what I owe this call."

"To your lamp," said the other, taking a chair; "it wasn't burning very
brightly, but still it was a light, and the only one about. I was on my
way to Lethbury, but I couldn't get any sort of conveyance at Romney, so
I footed it, thinking I would like a moonlight walk. But by the time I
got to the squirrel on the post I thought I would turn in here and stay
with Stephen Petter for the night; but the house was all shut up and
dark except this room, and as I knew that if I woke Stephen out of a
sound sleep he'd bang me over the head with his everlasting Rockmores of
Germantown, I determined to take a night's lodging without saying a word
to him about it.

"There's a room back here that you can only get into by a ladder put up
on the outside. I knew all about it, so I went to the ice-house and got
a ladder and climbed into the room. I put my valise under my head, and
prepared to take a good sleep on the floor, but