floating over the carpet about a foot in depth and
moving in slightly sinuous spirals upward towards the opened door!

At this phenomenon I stared in speechless astonishment; for whilst it
resembled steam or the early morning mist which one sometimes sees
upon the grass in hot weather, I was wholly at a loss to account for
its presence inside my cottage!

"Good heavens!" cried Gatton, and grasped me by the arm with so strong
a grip that I almost cried out. "_Look! Look!_"

"What the devil is it?" I muttered; and turning, I stared into his
face. "What _can_ it be?"

"Stand back," he said strangely, and pulled me out into the porch. "Do
you notice a peculiar smell?"

"I do--a most foul and abominable smell."

Gatton nodded grimly.

"God knows what has happened here since you left," he said; "but of
one thing I am sure--you must certainly bear a charmed life, Mr.
Addison. There has been a third attempt at your removal!"

This choking smell which now rose to my nostrils had in it something
vaguely familiar, yet something which at that place and that time I
found myself unable to identify; but:

"We shall have to open the windows!" rapped Gatton.

Suiting the action to the word, he took out his handkerchief, and
holding it to his nostrils went running along the corridor, his feet
oddly enveloped in that mysterious mist. A moment later I heard the
bang of a swiftly raised window, then another, and:

"Stand clear of the door!" called a muffled voice.

A moment later Gatton came racing back again, coughing and choking
because of the fumes which arose from that supernatural fog carpeting
the passages.

The chauffeur now appeared upon the path leading from the gate to the
porch, but:

"Stay by the car!" ordered Gatton. "Don't move without instructions."

I scarcely noted his words. For I was watching the gray fog. In the
dusk I could see it streaming out, that deathly mist, and creeping
away across grass and flower-beds, right and left of the door.

"Give it a chance to clear," said Gatton; "I fancy one good whiff
would finish any man!"

Even as he spoke the words the nature of this vapor suddenly occurred
to me, and:

"The Abbey Inn!" I whispered. "The Abbey Inn!"

"Ah!" said he--"you've solved the mystery, have you? But can you
explain how this stuff comes to be floating about the floor of your
house?"

"I cannot," I confessed. "But at all costs we must go in. We must
learn the worst!"

"Yes, we'll