he man, especially as it was
absolutely necessary for me to see Mrs. Warner that night and get her
consent to my departure before I could think of making further plans.

So, leaving word for Richter to be sure and wait for me if he came home
before I did, I signified to Mrs. Warner's messenger that I was ready
to go with him, and immediately took a seat in the carriage which had
been provided for me. The man at once jumped up on the box beside the
driver, and before I could close the carriage door we were off, riding
rapidly down Seventh Avenue.

As we went the thought came, "What if Mrs. Warner will not let me off!"
But I dismissed the fear at once, for this patient of mine is an
extremely unselfish woman, and if she were not too ill to grasp the
situation, would certainly sympathize with the strait I was in and
consent to accept Richter's services in place of my own, especially as
she knows and trusts him.

When the carriage stopped it was already dark and I could distinguish
little of the house I entered, save that it was large and old and did
not look like an establishment where a man servant would be likely to
be kept.

"Is Mrs. Warner here?" I asked of the man who was slowly getting down
from the box.

"Yes, sir," he answered quickly; and I was about to ring the bell
before me, when the door opened and a young German girl, courtesying
slightly, welcomed me in, saying:

"Mrs. Warner is upstairs, sir; in the front room, if you please."

Not doubting her, but greatly astonished at the barren aspect of the
place I was in, I stumbled up the faintly lighted stairs before me and
entered the great front room. It was empty, but through an open door
at the other end I heard a voice saying: "He has come, madam;" and
anxious to see my patient, whose presence in this desolate house I
found it harder and harder to understand, I stepped into the room where
she presumably lay.

Alas! for my temerity in doing so; for no sooner had I crossed the
threshold than the door by which I had entered closed with a click
unlike any I had ever heard before, and when I turned to see what it
meant, another click came from the opposite side of the room, and I
perceived, with a benumbed sense of wonder, that the one person whose
somewhat shadowy figure I had encountered on entering had vanished from
the place, and that I was shut up alone in a room without visible means
of egress.

This was startling, and hard to believe at first, b