ars. "You thought you saw a ghost?" he said incredulously.

And Helen, turning away, answered: "I would so much rather not speak
about it. I don't want even to think about it ever again!"

An hour later, as Panton and Sir Lyon stood outside the house waiting
for Varick, the doctor said a word to the other man: "A most
extraordinary thing happened here yesterday. Miss Brabazon apparently
believes she saw a ghost."

"Did she tell you so herself?" asked Sir Lyon quietly.

"No, her aunt mentioned it, quite as if it was an ordinary incident.
But I could see that it was true, for she was very much upset, and said
she would rather not speak of it."

They had then been joined by their host, and when once through the gate,
the doctor's first words had proved that his mind was still full of all
that had happened in the night.

"Surely _you_ don't put down what happened last night to a supernatural
agency?"

He was addressing Sir Lyon, and though he spoke quite civilly, there was
an under-current of sarcasm in his pleasant, confident voice.

"At one time I was very deeply interested in what I think one may call
the whole range of psychic phenomena," replied Sir Lyon deliberately,
"and I came to certain very definite conclusions--"

"And what," said Varick, with a touch of real eagerness, "were those
conclusions?"

Till now he had not joined in the discussion.

"For one thing, I very soon made up my mind that a great deal of what
occurs at every properly conducted seance can by no means be dismissed
as 'all bosh,'" answered Sir Lyon.

"Do you consider that the seance which took place the first evening you
were here was a properly conducted seance?" asked Varick slowly.

"Yes--as far as I was able to ascertain--it was. I felt convinced, for
instance, that Laughing Water was a separate entity--that was why I
asked her to pass me by. To me there is something indecent about an open
seance. I have always felt that very strongly; and what happened that
evening in the case of Mr. Burnaby of course confirmed my feeling."

Varick uttered under his breath an exclamation of incredulous amazement.
"D'you mean that you believe there was a _spirit_ present? It would take
some time to do it, but I think I could _prove_ that it was what I took
it to be--thought-reading of quite an exceptional quality, joined to a
clever piece of acting."

"You'd find it more difficult than you think to prove that," said Sir
Lyon quietly. "I've be