"Reflection of the moon," muttered Saunderson. "I am sorry. Go on, Crombie!" "I knew that some of the orchids were very valuable, and I thought there would not be time to call you; also I did not want to worry you, knowing you had worry enough already. So I knocked out my pipe and put it in my pocket, and went through the shrubbery. I saw the light again--it seemed to be moving from the first house into the second. I couldn't see what it was." "Was it like a candle, or a pocket-lamp?" jerked Dr. Cairn. "Nothing like that, sir; a softer light, more like a glow-worm; but much brighter. I went around and tried the door, and it was locked. Then I remembered the door at the other end, and I cut round by the path between the houses and the wall, so that I had no chance to see the light again, until I got to the other door. I found this unlocked. There was a close kind of smell in there, sir, and the air was very hot--" "Naturally, it was hot," interrupted Saunderson. "I mean much hotter than it should have been. It was like an oven, and the smell was stifling--" "What smell?" asked Dr. Cairn. "Can you describe it?" "Excuse me, sir, but I seem to notice it here in this room to-night, and I think I noticed it about the place before--never so strong as in the orchid-houses." "Go on!" said Dr. Cairn. "I went through the first house, and saw nothing. The shadow of the wall prevented the moonlight from shining in there. But just as I was about to enter the middle house, I thought I saw--a face." "What do you mean you _thought_ you saw?" snapped Mr. Saunderson. "I mean, sir, that it was so horrible and so strange that I could not believe it was real--which is one of the reasons why I did not speak before. It reminded me of the face of a gentleman I have seen here--Mr. Ferrara--" Dr. Cairn stifled an exclamation. "But in other ways it was quite unlike the gentleman. In some ways it was more like the face of a woman--a very bad woman. It had a sort of bluish light on it, but where it could have come from, I don't know. It seemed to be smiling, and two bright eyes looked straight out at me." Crombie stopped, raising his hand to his head confusedly. "I could see nothing but just this face--low down as if the person it belonged to was crouching on the floor; and there was a tall plant of some kind just beside it--" "Well," said Dr. Cairn, "go on! What did you do?" "I turned to run!" confessed the man. "If you had seen that horrible face, you would understand how frightened I was. Then when I got to the door, I looked back." "I hope you had closed the door behind you," snapped Saunderson. "Never mind that, never mind that!" interrupted Dr. Cairn.