or a pocket-lamp?" jerked Dr. Cairn.

"Nothing like that, sir; a softer light, more like a glow-worm; but
much brighter. I went around and tried the door, and it was locked.
Then I remembered the door at the other end, and I cut round by the
path between the houses and the wall, so that I had no chance to see
the light again, until I got to the other door. I found this unlocked.
There was a close kind of smell in there, sir, and the air was very
hot--"

"Naturally, it was hot," interrupted Saunderson.

"I mean much hotter than it should have been. It was like an oven, and
the smell was stifling--"

"What smell?" asked Dr. Cairn. "Can you describe it?"

"Excuse me, sir, but I seem to notice it here in this room to-night,
and I think I noticed it about the place before--never so strong as in
the orchid-houses."

"Go on!" said Dr. Cairn.

"I went through the first house, and saw nothing. The shadow of the
wall prevented the moonlight from shining in there. But just as I was
about to enter the middle house, I thought I saw--a face."

"What do you mean you _thought_ you saw?" snapped Mr. Saunderson.

"I mean, sir, that it was so horrible and so strange that I could not
believe it was real--which is one of the reasons why I did not speak
before. It reminded me of the face of a gentleman I have seen
here--Mr. Ferrara--"

Dr. Cairn stifled an exclamation.

"But in other ways it was quite unlike the gentleman. In some ways it
was more like the face of a woman--a very bad woman. It had a sort of
bluish light on it, but where it could have come from, I don't know.
It seemed to be smiling, and two bright eyes looked straight out at
me."

Crombie stopped, raising his hand to his head confusedly.

"I could see nothing but just this face--low down as if the person it
belonged to was crouching on the floor; and there was a tall plant of
some kind just beside it--"

"Well," said Dr. Cairn, "go on! What did you do?"

"I turned to run!" confessed the man. "If you had seen that horrible
face, you would understand how frightened I was. Then when I got to
the door, I looked back."

"I hope you had closed the door behind you," snapped Saunderson.

"Never mind that, never mind that!" interrupted Dr. Cairn.

"I had closed the door behind me--yes, sir--but just as I was going to
open it again, I took a quick glance back, and the face had gone! I
came out, and I was walking over the lawn, wondering whether I should
tell yo