t we all saw was a final effort to stave
off disgrace and misery.

"My duty demands it," said he. "Some one else has been digging here
within a very few days, Miss Knollys. That is as evident as is the fact
that a communication has been made with this place through an opening
into the room above. See!" And taking the lantern from the man at his
side, he held it up toward the ceiling.

There was no hole there now, but there were ample evidences of there
having been one, and that within a very short time. Loreen made no
further attempt to stay him.

"The house is at your disposal," she reiterated, but I do not think she
knew what she said. The man with the bundle in his arms was already
unrolling it on the cellar bottom. A spade came to light, together with
some other tools. Lifting the spade, he thrust it smartly into the
ground toward which Mr. Gryce's inexorable finger still pointed. At the
sight and the sound it made, a thrill passed through Lucetta which made
her another creature. Dashing forward, she flung herself down upon the
spot with lifted head and outstretched arms.

"Stop your desecrating hand!" she cried. "This is a grave--the grave,
sirs, of our mother!"

XXX

INVESTIGATION

The shock of these words--if false, most horrible; if true, still more
horrible--threw us all aback and made even Mr. Gryce's features assume
an aspect quite uncommon to them.

"Your mother's grave?" said he, looking from her to Loreen with very
evident doubt. "I thought your mother died seven or more years ago, and
this grave has been dug within three days."

"I know," she whispered. "To the world my mother has been dead many,
many years, but not to us. We closed her eyes night before last, and it
was to preserve this secret, which involves others affecting our family
honor, that we resorted to expedients which have perhaps attracted the
notice of the police and drawn this humiliation down upon us. I can
conceive no other reason for this visit, ushered in as it was by Mr.
Trohm."

"Miss Lucetta"--Mr. Gryce spoke quickly; if he had not I certainly could
not have restrained some expression of the emotions awakened in my own
breast by this astounding revelation--"Miss Lucetta, it is not necessary
to bring Mr. Trohm's name into this matter or that of any other person
than myself. I saw the coffin lowered here, which you say contained the
body of your mother. Thinking this a strange place of burial and not
knowing it w