efore.

It bore out my theory of the sound, which had been for all the world
like the bumping of a metallic object down a flight of steps. The four
steps had been skipped. I reasoned that an iron bar, for instance,
would do something of the sort,--strike two or three steps, end down,
then turn over, jumping a few stairs, and landing with a thud.

Iron bars, however, do not fall down-stairs in the middle of the night
alone. Coupled with the figure on the veranda the agency by which it
climbed might be assumed. But--and here was the thing that puzzled me
most--the doors were all fastened that morning, the windows unmolested,
and the particular door from the card-room to the veranda had a
combination lock of which I held the key, and which had not been
tampered with.

I fixed on an attempt at burglary, as the most natural explanation--an
attempt frustrated by the falling of the object, whatever it was, that
had roused me. Two things I could not understand: how the intruder had
escaped with everything locked, and why he had left the small silver,
which, in the absence of a butler, had remained down-stairs over night.

Under pretext of learning more about the place, Thomas Johnson led me
through the house and the cellars, without result. Everything was in
good order and repair; money had been spent lavishly on construction
and plumbing. The house was full of conveniences, and I had no reason
to repent my bargain, save the fact that, in the nature of things,
night must come again. And other nights must follow--and we were a long
way from a police-station.

In the afternoon a hack came up from Casanova, with a fresh relay of
servants. The driver took them with a flourish to the servants'
entrance, and drove around to the front of the house, where I was
awaiting him.

"Two dollars," he said in reply to my question. "I don't charge full
rates, because, bringin' 'em up all summer as I do, it pays to make a
special price. When they got off the train, I sez, sez I, 'There's
another bunch for Sunnyside, cook, parlor maid and all.' Yes'm--six
summers, and a new lot never less than once a month. They won't stand
for the country and the lonesomeness, I reckon."

But with the presence of the "bunch" of servants my courage revived,
and late in the afternoon came a message from Gertrude that she and
Halsey would arrive that night at about eleven o'clock, coming in the
car from Richfield. Things were looking up; and whe