perishing so, and he the author of it all, little wonder if sleep forsook him, and his dreams grew frightful with avenging phantoms, and the light brought only troubled memories to torment him. Then before I could move forward I heard a sound in the darkness ahead of me. I knew at once what it meant. The secret door was opening. I turned and hurried back; and it was fortunate for me that the passage was a tangle of turnings, for otherwise I should have had to put out my lantern, or expose myself to the stranger. And something told me that the stranger was no friend to me. I was soon back in the chamber, and listening heard feet moving nearer along the passage; and something too which stopped my breath in a hushed pause; for very faint and low came the murmur of a moan such as I had often heard in that haunted house. And then I could have laughed; for I said, the door is open, and the wind is blowing through. But I had no time to ponder on the sound, for the feet were approaching. I turned to the chimney, and opened the narrow door in the side, and before me was the first step of a spiral stairway, so cramped that as I entered I brushed both shoulders against the walls. At last I reached the bottom, and there I paused again to listen. I could hear faint sounds above me, but I breathed freely when there was no step upon the stairs. For a while I was safe. So I held up my lantern and examined the wall in front of me. From this side it was easy enough to see how the door opened. Two large steel bars, pivoting on their centres and working together, lay across the door, holding it immovably in place. But they were so well balanced that they could be lifted with a finger, and when released dropped almost noiselessly back into the well-oiled staples. A spring lever which could be forced inwards from the outside to raise them clear of the catch completed the simple mechanism. I swung the bars from the horizontal, and the door opened soundlessly in upon me; and as I expected I found myself looking into the oak wardrobe. But what I wanted to learn was how to force in the spring from the outside. If I went away without discovering that my adventure would have been fruitless. And then I heard some one coming up the main stairs.... What was I to do? If he came into the room I should be caught. And to ascend again to the secret chamber would be impossible, for some one was waiting for me there as well. I thought my best plan was to hide at the bottom of the little stairway. But as I was creeping back I heard the door above me open, and some one commence the descent; and at the same moment there was a fumbling at the bedroom door. I didn't stay to think what to do. I crept into the wardrobe, blowing out my lantern, and shutting the door behind me, and crouched in the farther corner, hoping the darkness would conceal me.