when she came out she was depressed and in a state of
lowered vitality.

"I'm afraid I'm not helping you," she said. "I'm a little tired, I
think."

She was tired. I felt suddenly very sorry for her. She was so pretty and
so young--only twenty-six or thereabouts--to be in the grip of forces
so relentless. Sperry sent her home in his car, and took to pacing the
floor of his office.

"I'm going to give it up, Horace," he said. "Perhaps you are right. We
may be on the verge of some real discovery. But while I'm interested, so
interested that it interferes with my work, I'm frankly afraid to go on.
There are several reasons."

I argued with him. There could be no question that if things were left
as they were, a number of people would go through life convinced that
Elinor Wells had murdered her husband. Look at the situation. She had
sent out all the servants and the governess, surely an unusual thing in
an establishment of that sort. And Miss Jeremy had been vindicated in
three points; some stains had certainly been washed up, we had found the
key where she had stated it to be, and Arthur had certainly been shaving
himself.

"In other words," I argued, "we can't stop, Sperry. You can't stop. But
my idea would be that our investigations be purely scientific and not
criminal."

"Also, in other words," he said, "you think we will discover something,
so you suggest that we compound a felony and keep it to ourselves!"

"Exactly," I said drily.

It is of course possible that my nerves were somewhat unstrung during
the days that followed. I wakened one night to a terrific thump which
shook my bed, and which seemed to be the result of some one having
struck the foot-board with a plank. Immediately following this came
a sharp knocking on the antique bed-warmer which hangs beside my
fireplace. When I had sufficiently recovered my self-control I turned on
my bedside lamp, but the room was empty.

Again I wakened with a feeling of intense cold. I was frozen with it,
and curiously enough it was an inner cold. It seemed to have nothing to
do with the surface of my body. I have no explanation to make of these
phenomena. Like the occurrences at the seance, they were, and that was
all.

But on Thursday night of that week my wife came into my bedroom, and
stated flatly that there were burglars in the house.

Now it has been my contention always that if a burglar gains entrance,
he should be allowed to take what he wants. Silv