mpany in the hollow, an advance was ultimately made along
the beach. Within a few yards they encountered the invisible cord of
the third spring-gun. There was a report, and another fierce outbreak
of musketry. This was enough. Not a man would move a step nearer that
abode of the dead. The next commotion arose on the ridge near the North
Cape.

"At this rate of progress," said Jenks to the girl, "they will not
reach our house until daylight."

"I almost wish they were here," was the quiet reply. "I find this
waiting and listening to be trying to the nerves."

They were lying on a number of ragged garments hastily spread on the
ledge, and peering intently into the moonlit area of Prospect Park. The
great rock itself was shrouded in somber shadows. Even if they stood up
none could see them from the ground, so dense was the darkness
enveloping them.

He turned slightly and took her hand. It was cool and moist. It no more
trembled than his own.

"The Dyaks are far more scared than you," he murmured with a laugh.
"Cruel and courageous as they are, they dare not face a spook."

"Then what a pity it is we cannot conjure up a ghost for their benefit!
All the spirits I have ever read about were ridiculous. Why cannot one
be useful occasionally?"

The question set him thinking. Unknown to the girl, the materials for a
dramatic apparition were hidden amidst the bushes near the well. He
cudgeled his brains to remember the stage effects of juvenile days; but
these needed limelight, blue flares, mirrors, phosphorus.

The absurdity of hoping to devise any such accessories whilst perched
on a ledge in a remote island--a larger reef of the thousands in the
China Sea--tickled him.

"What is it?" asked Iris.

He repeated his list of missing stage properties. They had nothing to
do but to wait, and people in the very crux and maelstrom of existence
usually discuss trivial things.

"I don't know anything about phosphorus," said the girl, "but you can
obtain queer results from sulphur, and there is an old box of Norwegian
matches resting at this moment on the shelf in my room. Don't you
remember? They were in your pocket, and you were going to throw them
away. Why, what are you doing?"

For Jenks had cast the rope-ladder loose and was evidently about to
descend.

"Have no fear," he said; "I will not be away five minutes."

"If you are going down I must come with you. I will not be left here
alone."

"Please do not stop me