r, and he went on, more as if speaking
to himself than to her:--"We needn't consider what the village people
say. Timmy just tries to frighten them--like all boys he's fond of his
practical joke, and of course it's a temptation to him to work on their
fears. But the little lad certainly presents a curious natural
phenomenon, if I may so express myself."

She looked at him puzzled. She had no idea what he meant.

"If that child wasn't the child of sensible people, he'd have become
famous--he'd be what silly people call a medium."

"Would he?" she said. "Do you mean that he can turn tables and do that
sort of thing?"

The doctor shook his head. "What I mean is that in some way as yet
unexplained by science, he can create simulacra of what people are
thinking about, or of what may simply be hidden far away in the recesses
of their memory. In a sort of way Timmy Tosswill can make things seem to
appear which, as a matter of fact, are not there. But how he does it?
Well, I can't tell you _that_."

Enid Crofton stared at Dr. O'Farrell. It was as if he were speaking to
her in a foreign language, and yet his words made her feel vaguely
apprehensive. Surely Timmy could not divine the hidden thoughts of the
people about him? She grew hot with dismay at the idea.

The doctor bent forward, and looked at her keenly: "I should like to ask
you another question, Mrs. Crofton. Have you in your past life ever had
some very painful association with a dog--I mean any very peculiar
experience with a terrier?"

The colour receded from her face. She was so surprised that she hardly
knew what to answer.

"I don't think so. My first experience of a really disagreeable kind was
when that boy's terrier flew at me. It's true that I've always had a
peculiar dislike to dogs--at least for a long time," she corrected
herself hastily. She added after a moment's pause, "I expect you know
that Colonel Crofton bred dogs?"

"Aye, and that very dog, Flick, was bred by your husband--isn't that so?"

"I believe he was."

She was wondering anxiously why he asked her this question, and her mind
all at once flew off to Piper and Mrs. Piper, and she felt sick with
fear.

"I ask you these questions," said the doctor very deliberately, "because,
according to Mrs. Tosswill, Timmy thinks, or says he thinks, that you are
always accompanied by--well, how can I put it?--by a phantom dog."

"A phantom dog?"

She stared at him with her large dark eyes, an