aid "Good-night."

He went to the door with him, and saw the light shine on the thin,
silvery hair as he went slowly up the staircase, while his candle cast a
grotesque shadow on the wall. Then, as Capel listened, he heard the old
man shut his chamber door, open it softly, and shut it again more
loudly; while, with the great house seeming to be doubly steeped in
darkness and silence, Paul Capel went back to the lounge in which he had
been seated, leaving his chamber candle burning like a tiny star in the
great sea of gloom, and sat back, thinking.

The candle burned lower as he thought on, ransacking his memory for some
slight clue that would help him to find his lost fortune.

The candle went out.

Had he been asleep?

He could not say. He believed that he had been only thinking deeply.
At all events, he was widely awake now, as he sat back listening to the
heavy beating of his own heart, as he stared through the intense
darkness towards the door, upon whose panel he had felt sure he had
heard a soft pat, as if something had touched it.

A minute--it might have been half-an-hour, it seemed so long--and there
was a faint rustling, and Paul Capel knew, as he stared through that
intense darkness, that some one, or something, was coming silently
towards where he sat.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"YOU HERE!"

Paul Capel was not superstitious, but a curious thrill ran through his
nerves, and his first impulse was to leap up and shout, "Who's there?"

Then a thought flashed through his brain that whoever this was might
have something to do with the disappearance of the treasure, and he told
himself that he would wait, though the next moment he found himself
frankly owning that a chill of dread had frozen his powers, and that he
could not have moved to save his life.

A minute's reflection told him that it could not be a burglar. No one
would come singly upon such a mission, and the marauder would have been
provided with a dark lantern or matches. It must be some one in the
house. The superstitious fancies were cleared away, as his heart gave a
throb, with the hope that he might now find the clue to the mystery that
was hanging over the place.

Thought after thought flashed through his brain, and, as they dazed him
with the wild conjectures, the person, whoever it was, glided nearer and
nearer, and all doubt fled, for, whoever it was, had stretched out a
hand and touched the silver candlestick upon the table wher