le
brain? Could it, too, reconstruct the past, read the mysteries of the
future ...

Some awful power, greater than my will, seemed stretching its
tentacles from the darkness: I felt them dragging at me, certain,
remorseless, growing stronger and stronger ...

With something very like a shriek of terror, I tore myself away, out
of the entry, into the hall, to the stairs, and down them into the
lighted room below.

And as I stood there, gasping for breath, Godfrey followed me, and I
saw that his face, too, was livid.

CHAPTER VIII

A FRESH ENIGMA

Godfrey met my eyes with a little deprecating smile, put his torch in
one pocket, took a handkerchief from another, and mopped his forehead.

"Rather nerve-racking, wasn't it, Lester?" he remarked, and then his
gaze wandered to the couch, and he stepped toward it quickly.

I saw that a change had come in Miss Vaughan's condition. Her eyes
were still closed, but her body no longer lay inert and lifeless, for
from moment to moment it was shaken by a severe nervous tremor.
Godfrey's face was very grave as he looked at her.

"Stop stroking her wrists, Swain," he said; "that does no good," and
when Swain, without answering or seeming to hear, kept on stroking
them, Godfrey drew the hands away, took Swain by the arm, and
half-lifted him to his feet. "Listen to me," he said, more sternly,
and shook him a little, for Swain's eyes were dull and vacant. "I want
you to sit quietly in a chair for a while, till you get your senses
back. Miss Vaughan is seriously ill and must not be disturbed in any
way. I'm going to get a doctor and a nurse at once; they'll do what
needs to be done. Until then, she must be left alone. Understand?"

Swain nodded vaguely, and permitted Godfrey to lead him to a chair
near the outer door, where he sat down. As his hand fell across the
arm of the chair, I could see that a little blood was still oozing
from the wound on the wrist. Godfrey saw it, too, and picked up the
hand and looked at it. Then he laid it gently down again and glanced
at his watch. I followed his example, and saw that it was half-past
one.

"Have you nerve enough to stay here half an hour by yourself, Lester?"
he asked.

"By myself?" I echoed, and glanced at the dead man and at the
quivering girl.

"I've got to run over to my place to get a few things and do some
telephoning," he explained. "We must get a doctor up here at once; and
then there's the police--I'll try t