Footsteps there were in abundance, but the hardened crust had formed over them, showing plainly that they were the footsteps of persons who had passed over the snow some time before. As it was Sunday, and service had been held in the Trinity Church twice at least during the day, there was nothing strange in this. A score of people might have amused themselves wandering about among the moldering tombs, as the church-yard is free to all. Detective Hook examined these footprints carefully. Among them he recognized his own and those measured by him the night before. At one point he observed also many smaller than the rest, as though made by the feet of boys; and these were particularly numerous in the vicinity of a great flat tomb-stone, embedded apparently in the solid earth, about which the snow had all been cleared away. "Mr. Hook," whispered Frank, nervously, "what can this mean?" "My boy, you have me there. I can't tell any more than yourself." "It is very, very strange. I saw my mother as plainly as I see you now. I heard her words spoken in her own voice." "You are positive that it was your mother, Frank?" said the detective, musingly, as he stood contemplating the great flat stone. "Positive? Of course I am. It is almost enough to make me feel that I am going mad myself. I should doubt my own vision, my hearing even, had you not both seen and heard too." "There is nothing to doubt," replied Hook with sudden emphasis, turning his gaze at the same time upon the boy, who stood trembling with excitement before him. "What you saw I saw, what you heard was heard also by me. No, no, my boy, there is no madness in this case. If you are positive that the woman murdered in Catherine street was your mother, that the woman I followed through the streets last night was your mother, then, although I am an utter disbeliever in spiritual manifestations of all kinds, I see but one conclusion to draw----" As the detective paused, staring about the church-yard in deep perplexity, Frank felt a shudder pass through his frame from his head to his feet. If the man by his side did not believe in ghosts, no more did he. And yet---- Well, the woman seen by them both was gone, and that was all there was to it. The whole expanse of the rear of the Trinity church-yard, toward which she had moved, now lay spread out before them. If her gliding figure had vanished into thin air it could not have disappeared more effectually than it had. "Come," said Hook, abruptly moving at the same time toward the low wall on the Rector street side, "there's no use in remaining longer; we shall learn nothing here to-night." Gaining the fence, he vaulted lightly to the street. Frank, following his example, stood by his side. "Well, which way are you going?" asked the detective. "I am tired, and off for home." "Oh, I stay with some friends to-night."