g to open?"

It did not open. There was simply silence all at once, and that was all. I
sat there in expectation for some moments longer. But I sat for nothing. I
rose. I took the box in my hand. I shook it.

"This puzzle _is_ a puzzle." I held the box first to one ear, then to the
other. I gave it several sharp raps with my knuckles. There was not an
answering sound, not even the sort of reverberation which Pugh and I had
noticed at first. It seemed hollower than ever. It was as though the soul
of the box was dead. "I suppose if I put you down, and extinguish the gas
and return to bed, in about half an hour or so, just as I am dropping off
to sleep, the performance will be recommenced. Perhaps the third time will
be lucky."

But I was mistaken--there was no third time. When I returned to bed that
time I returned to sleep, and I was allowed to sleep; there was no
continuation of the performance, at least so far as I know. For no sooner
was I once more between the sheets than I was seized with an irresistible
drowsiness, a drowsiness which so mastered me that I--I imagine it must
have been instantly--sank into slumber which lasted till long after day
had dawned. Whether or not any more mysterious sounds issued from the
bowels of Pugh's puzzle is more than I can tell. If they did, they did not
succeed in rousing me.

And yet, when at last I did awake, I had a sort of consciousness that my
waking had been caused by something strange. What it was I could not
surmise. My own impression was that I had been awakened by the touch of a
person's hand. But that impression must have been a mistaken one, because,
as I could easily see by looking round the room, there was no one in the
room to touch me.

It was broad daylight. I looked at my watch; it was nearly eleven o'clock.
I am a pretty late sleeper as a rule, but I do not usually sleep as late
as that. That scoundrel Bob would let me sleep all day without thinking it
necessary to call me. I was just about to spring out of bed with the
intention of ringing the bell so that I might give Bob a piece of my mind
for allowing me to sleep so late, when my glance fell on the
dressing-table on which, the night before, I had placed Pugh's puzzle. It
had gone!

Its absence so took me by surprise that I ran to the table. It _had_ gone.
But it had not gone far; it had gone to pieces! There were the pieces
lying where the box had been. The puzzle had solved itself. The box was
open, o