to the terror of
the sound. I clutched at Smith's arm convulsively whilst that uncanny
cry rose and fell--rose and fell--and died away.

Neither of us moved immediately. My mind was working with feverish
rapidity and seeking to run down a memory which the sound had stirred
into faint quickness. My heart was still leaping wildly when the
wailing began again, rising and falling in regular cadence. At that
instant I identified it.

During the time Smith and I had spent together in Egypt, two years
before, searching for Karamaneh, I had found myself on one occasion in
the neighbourhood of a native cemetery near to Bedrasheen. Now, the
scene which I had witnessed there rose up again vividly before me, and
I seemed to see a little group of black-robed women clustered together
about a native grave; for the wailing which now was dying away again
in The Gables was the same, or almost the same, as the wailing of
those Egyptian mourners.

The house was very silent, now. My forehead was damp with
perspiration, and I became more and more convinced that the uncanny
ordeal must prove too much for my nerves. Hitherto, I had accorded
little credence to tales of the supernatural, but face to face with
such manifestations as these, I realized that I would have faced
rather a group of armed dacoits, nay! Dr. Fu-Manchu himself, than have
remained another hour in that ill-omened house.

My companion must have read as much in my face. But he kept up the
strange and, to me, purposeless comedy when presently he spoke.

"I feel it to be incumbent upon me to suggest," he said, "that we
spend the night at an hotel after all."

He walked rapidly downstairs and into the library and began to strap
up the grip.

"Yet," he said, "there may be a natural explanation of what we've
heard; for it is noteworthy that we have actually _seen_ nothing. It
might even be possible to get used to the ringing and the wailing
after a time. Frankly, I am loath to go back on my bargain!"

Whilst I stared at him in amazement, he stood there indeterminate as
it seemed. Then--

"Come, Pearce!" he cried loudly, "I can see that you do not share my
views; but for my own part I shall return to-morrow and devote further
attention to the phenomena."

Extinguishing the light, he walked out into the hall-way, carrying the
grip in his hand. I was not far behind him. We walked toward the door
together, and--

"Turn the light out, Pearce," directed Smith; "the switch i