Widdershins

his spirit. She had given him his liberty; true, there was a sense in which he had never parted with it, but now was no time for splitting hairs; he was free to act, and all w

ary that he should have all the information he could get about this old house with the insurance marks and the sloping "To Let" boards, and the vicar

there were few old houses about which some such rumour did not circulate among the ignorant; and the deplorable lack of Faith of the modern world, the vicar thought, did not tend to dissipate thes

f the question," he said. "How

I should say," t

Oleron was conscious of a tingling of his nerve

ation, and since it is better that the truth should be told than that garbled versions should get about, I don't mind saying that this man Madley died there, under somewhat unusual circumstances. It was ascertained at the post-mortem that there was not a particl

here happen to be any compreh

stical history, its registers and so forth, which I shall be happy to show you if you would care to see t

leisure occupied the remainder of the interview, and Oleron

ece of work now before him; it required the greatest mental concentration; it was nothing less than to bring his mind, if he might, into such a state of unpreoccupation and r

able to find him out at all, it had had the inertia of those dreary chapters to overcome. No results had shown. The process had been one of slow saturation, charging, fillin

put his key into the Yale lock, enter

wonder and promise for him, he was conscious of that new ease and mastery and exhilaration and release. The air of the place seemed to hold more oxygen; as if his own specific gravity had changed, his very tread seemed less ponderable.

tty, pretty!" h

y down on

cancy, smiling now and then as if in his sleep, and ever lifting drowsy and contented eyes to his alluring

any specific happenin

ensitised-plate-like condition of his mind. Nothing occurred to give it an impression

rstood. A look of gentle drollery and cu

is to be done. What is there, now?... No, I won't send for Elsie; we don't need a

jaw, looking aslant; suddenly he crossed t

e'll see what a little neglect will do,

in the country. Oh, yes: Oleron thought he was the man to deal with Fair Ones

n until after el

d as he walked along the alley and

lay on the floor. The window was uncurtained, and he could see the reflection of the candle, and, faintly, that of his own face, as he moved about. The door of the powder-closet stood a little ajar, and he closed it before sitting down to remove his boots on the chair with the cushion made of the folded harp-bag. From the kitchen he passed to the bathroom. There, another slant of blue moonlight cut the win

, and his bed and the window occupied the remaining sides of the room. Oleron drew down

doubted. Nor, though he could not form the faintest guess of the shape it might take, did he experience fear. Startling or surprising it might be; he was p

would have fallen. The bed was a low one; the groping for the slippers accounted for the turn of his head to one side; and he was careful to keep the attitude until he had partly recovered his self-possession. When pr

ceased its little oscilla

d see also in the picture-glass the little glancings of light from the bevels and facets of the objects about the mirror and candle. But he could see more. These twinklings and reflections and re-reflections did not change their position; but there was

tch, he began to empty his trousers pockets and to place methodically in a little row on the mantelpiece the pennies and halfpennies he took from them. The sweeping, minutely electric noise filled

might have been following

ddenly round. That which was being combed was still not to be seen, but the comb did not stop. It had altered its angle a little, and had moved a little to the left. It was passing, i

and began to wash his hands. He removed his waistcoat, and continued his preparations for bed. The combi

ad for a quarter of an

d out of

out his hand and picked it up. It was an ordinary eighteenpenny comb, taken from a card in a chemist's shop, of a substance of a definite specific gravity, and no more capable of rebellion against the Laws by which it existed t

t into a chair.... "As I thought.... She's

*

he count of them, Oleron, courting, cajoling, neglecting, threatening, beseeching, eaten out with unappeased curiosity and regar