the entrance and again leaned
back for support.

She had to wait a half-hour before she saw a yellow flame reappear and
heard the dully echoing steps of Bouchard approaching. That tiny
push-button on the panel, of the color of stone, was in the shadow of
her figure against the lantern's rays, which gave a glazed and haunted
effect to Bouchard's eyes, rolling as he studied the walls and ceiling
and floor of the tunnel in final baffled and desperate inquiry.

"Did you see anything? Did you go into all the dungeons?" Marta called
to him.

Bouchard did not answer. Perhaps he was too full of disgust for words.
Marta, however, had plenty of words in her impatience for knowledge.

"If there were you must have caught them with a quick strangle-hold. Or,
did you see one and not dare to go on? Tell me! tell me!" she insisted
when he stopped before her, his expression a strange mixture of defiance
and dissatisfaction while he was searching the wall around her figure.
Before his eye had any inclination to look as far away from her as the
button she stepped free of the wall and laid her hand on Bouchard's arm.
"I can't wait! I've nearly perished of suspense!" she cried. "I'm just
dying to know what you found. Please tell me!"

Meanwhile, she was looking into his eyes, which were eagerly devouring
the spot that her figure had hidden. He saw nothing but bare stone.
Marta slipped her hand behind her and began brushing her back.

"My gown must be a sight!" she exclaimed. "But I do believe you saw a
ghost and that he struck you speechless!"

"No!" exploded Bouchard. "No, I saw nothing!"

"Nothing!" she repeated. She half turned to go. He passed by her with
the lantern, while she kept to the side of the wall which held the
button, covering it with her shadow successfully. "Nothing! No bones, no
skulls--not even any anklets fastened by chains to the clammy, wet
stones?"

"Yes, just an ordinary set of Middle Age dungeons and some staples in
the walls!" he grumbled.

This was no news to her as, with Minna for company, she had explored all
the underground passages.

"Wonderful! I suppose a little courage will always lay ghosts!" She
even found it difficult to conceal a note of triumph in her tone, for
the button was now well behind them. "It's all right, Minna; there
aren't any ghosts!" she called as they entered the sitting-room. And
Minna, in the kitchen, covered her mouth lest she should scream for joy.

"Thank you!" said B