om with its small paned windows, its deep
embrasures, its shallow ceiling.

"It isn't that," she whispered. "It's because the house is full of queer
things. The servants all felt it. They talked about spirits and left.
Five have come and gone in the week I've been here. But I've never been
superstitious, and I didn't hear anything until last night."

Garth stirred.

"What did you hear? When was it?"

"About midnight," she answered tensely. "I had had company in the
kitchen until then, so I was alone downstairs. McDonald had told me
before he went to bed to make sure the last thing that the library fire
was all right. I had looked at it and had put the fender up and was just
leaving the room when I heard this sound--like moans, sir. I--I've never
heard such suffering."

She shuddered.

"It was like a voice from the grave--like somebody trying to get out of
the grave."

"But you heard no shot?"

"No, sir."

Garth spoke tolerantly.

"These sounds must have come from up stairs. You've forgotten that Mr.
Taylor was an invalid."

She cried out angrily.

"It wasn't like a man's or a woman's voice, and I can't tell where it
came from. I tell you it was like a--a dead voice."

"You failed to trace it, of course," Garth said. "Describe to me what
you did."

"I ran to the kitchen," she answered, "but, as I told you, there was no
one there. McDonald had gone to bed, and so had his daughter."

Garth stooped swiftly forward and grasped her arm.

"What's that you're saying? His daughter! You mean to tell me McDonald
has a daughter, and she was in the house last night?"

She shrank from his excited gesture.

"Yes. He asked me not to tell you, but I'm frightened. I don't want to
get in trouble. She's the housekeeper. She engages all the servants and
runs the house."

"Then where is she now?"

"She must have gone out early this morning, sir, for I haven't seen her
all day. I wanted to be fair. I've only been waiting for her to come
back so I could tell her I was leaving."

"Send McDonald back to me," Garth said, "unless he's left the house,
too."

The butler had deliberately lied to shield his daughter, and had asked
secrecy of this girl. And all this talk of spirits and of cries! It was
turning out an interesting case after all--possibly an abnormal one.
Moreover, he was getting somewheres with it.

McDonald slipped in. He was more agitated than before. His face was
distorted. His tongue moistened his li