s above the road surface and gradually descending. In any
event the frightened group of onlookers scattered and shouted until
the whole little street was aroused. But by then the ghosts had
vanished.

There were tales of prowlers around houses. Dogs barked in the
night, frantic with excitement, and then shivered with terror,
fearful of what they could sense but not see.

In Hamilton harbor, moored at its dock, was a liner ready to leave
for New York. The deck watch saw ghosts walking apparently in
mid-air over the moonlit bay, and claimed that he saw the white
figure of a man pass through the solid hull-plates of the ship. At
the Gibbs Hill Lighthouse other apparitions were seen; and the St.
David Islanders saw a group of distant figures seemingly a hundred
feet or more beneath the beach--a group, heedless of being observed;
busy with some activity; dragging some apparatus, it seemed. They
pulled and tugged at it, moving it along with them until they were
lost to sight, faded in the arriving dawn and blurred by the white
line of breakers on the beach over them.

The tales differed materially in details. But nearly all mentioned
the dark helmets of strange design, the white, tightly fitting
garments, and many described the dark thread-like wires looped along
the arms and legs, running up into the helmet, and back across the
chest to converge at the belt where there was a clock-like
dial-face.

* * * * *

The ghostly visitors seemed not aggressive. But Eunice Arton was
missing; and by noon of May 15th it was apparent that several other
white girls had also vanished. All of them were under twenty, all of
prominent Bermuda families, and all of exceptional beauty.

By this time the little government was in chaos. The newspapers, by
government order, were suppressed. The cable station voluntarily
refused to send press dispatches to the outside world. Don, Jane and
I, through Mr. Dorrance's prominence, had all the reports; but to
the public it was only known by whispered, garbled rumor. A panic
was impending. The New York liner, that morning of May 15th, was
booked beyond capacity. An English ship, anchored out in the open
channel outside Hamilton harbor, received passengers up to its limit
and sailed.

The shops of St. Georges and Hamilton did not open that morning of
May 15th. People gathered in the streets--groups of whites and
blacks--trying to learn what they could, and each adding