The noise ceased suddenly, leaving us with no hint of

its whereabouts.

I went directly to the rear of the house and found

Bates putting the dishes away in the pantry.

"Where have you been?" I demanded.

"Here, sir; I have been clearing up the dinner things,

Mr. Glenarm. Is there anything the matter, sir?"

"Nothing."

I joined the others in the library.

"Why didn't you tell me this feudal imitation was

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haunted?" asked Larry, in a grieved tone. "All it needed

was a cheerful ghost, and now I believe it lacks absolutely

nothing. I'm increasingly glad I came. How

often does it walk?"

"It's not on a schedule. Just now it's the wind in

the tower probably; the wind plays queer pranks up

there sometimes."

"You'll have to do better than that, Glenarm," said

Stoddard. "It's as still outside as a country graveyard."

"Only the slaugh sidhe, the people of the faery hills,

the cheerfulest ghosts in the world," said Larry. "You

literal Saxons can't grasp the idea, of course."

But there was substance enough in our dangers without

pursuing shadows. Certain things were planned

that night. We determined to exercise every precaution

to prevent a surprise from without, and we resolved

upon a new and systematic sounding of walls and floors,

taking our clue from the efforts made by Morgan and

his ally to find hiding-places by this process. Pickering

would undoubtedly arrive shortly, and we wished to

anticipate his movements as far as possible.

We resolved, too, upon a day patrol of the grounds

and a night guard. The suggestion came, I believe,

from Stoddard, whose interest in my affairs was only

equaled by the fertility of his suggestions. One of us

should remain abroad at night, ready to sound the alarm

in case of attack. Bates should take his turn with the

rest-Stoddard insisted on it.

Within two days we were, as Larry expressed it, on a

war footing. We added a couple of shot-guns and several

revolvers to my own arsenal, and piled the library

table with cartridge boxes. Bates, acting as quarter-master,

brought a couple of wagon-loads of provisions.

Stoddard assembled a remarkable collection of heavy

sticks; he had more confidence in them, he said, than in

gunpowder, and, moreover, he explained, a priest might

not with propriety hear arms.

It was a cheerful company of conspirators that now

gathered around the big hearth. Larry, always restless,

preferred to stand at one side, an elbow on the

mantel-shelf, pipe in mouth; and Stoddard sought the

biggest chair,-and filled it. He and Larry understood

each other at once, and Larry's stories, ranging in subject

from undergraduate experiences at Dublin to adventures

in Africa and always including endless conflicts

with the Irish constabulary, delighted the big boyish

clergyman.

Often, at some one's suggestion of a new idea, we ran

off to explore the house again in search of the key to the

Glenarm riddle, and always we came back to the library

with that riddle still unsolved.




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