the
radiance and Lucian heard a faint cry.

Thinking that something was wrong, he rushed up the steps and rang the
bell violently. Almost before the sound died away the light in the room
was extinguished, and he could see nothing more. Again and again he
rang, but without attracting attention; so Lucian finally left the house
and went in search of Blinders, the policeman, to narrate his
experience. At the entrance of Geneva Square he ran against a man whom
he recognised in the clear moonlight.

To his surprise he beheld Mark Berwin.

CHAPTER III

AN UNSATISFACTORY EXPLANATION

"Mr. Berwin!" cried Lucian, recognising the man. "Is it you?"

"Who else should it be?" replied Berwin, bending forward to see who had
jostled him. "Who else should it be, Mr. Denzil?"

"But I thought--I thought," said the barrister, unable to conceal his
surprise, "that is, I fancied you were indoors."

"Your fancy was wrong, you see. I am not indoors."

"Then who is in your house?"

Berwin shrugged his shoulders. "No one, so far as I know."

"You are mistaken, sir. There was a light in your room, and I saw the
shadows of a man and a woman struggling together thrown on the blind."

"People in my house!" said Berwin, laying a shaking hand on the arm of
Lucian. "Impossible!"

"I tell you it is so!"

"Come, then, and we will look for them," said Berwin in a tremulous
voice.

"But they have gone by this time!"

"Gone!"

"Yes," said Denzil rapidly. "I rang the bell, as I fancied there was
some fatal quarrel going on within. At once the light was put out, and
as I could attract no one to the door, I suppose the man and woman must
have fled."

For a moment or so Berwin said nothing, but his grip on Lucian's arm
relaxed, and he moved forward a few steps. "You must be mistaken, Mr.
Denzil," said he in altered tones, "there can be no person in my house.
I locked the door before I went out, and I have been absent at least two
hours."

"Then I must be mad, or dreaming!" retorted Lucian, with heat.

"We can soon prove if you are either of the two, sir. Come with me and
examine the house for yourself."

"Pardon me," said Denzil, drawing back, "it is none of my business. But
I warn you, Mr. Berwin, that others are more curious than I am. Several
times people have been known to be in your house while you were absent,
and your mode of life, secretive and strange, does not commend itself to
the householders in this neighbourhoo