"Somebody turned off the studio lights! Beatrice, who could have done it?" "Turned off the lights! What do you mean?" "Yes, Natalie and I sat there, Natalie thought she would go into a trance, you know----" "That foolish girl! Did she?" "No. But we heard--oh, I can't tell you now! Come with me back there, do!" Rising hastily from her desk, Beatrice followed Joyce downstairs and into the studio. There they found Natalie standing by a table in the middle of the room, looking with a staring gaze at a large leather case that was on the table. "The jewels!" cried Joyce. "Eric's jewels! Where did you find them, Natalie?" "Right here on this table. I haven't touched them." "What do you mean?" and Beatrice looked curiously at the girl. "How did they get there?" "I don't know," said Natalie, dully. She seemed as one bereft of her senses. "When Joyce turned on the lights----" "Who turned them off?" put in Beatrice, unable to hold back the question. "Eric did," said Natalie, her eyes wide with awed wonder. "He--that is, his spirit, was here--we heard him sigh--and he turned the lights off and then put the jewels on the table----" "Oh, Natalie, what nonsense! It couldn't have been Eric's spirit that brought that box in here!" "Then who did?" Beatrice looked at the girl, and said, "Did you do it, Natalie? Did you know where they were all the time?" "No, I didn't do it. Neither did Joyce. We sat right there by Eric's chair--and Eric was present--we heard him, didn't we, Joyce?" "We did, Beatrice, we surely did. I'd know that voice among a thousand. It was the same groan--the same cry for help that he uttered that--that awful night. Can it be that he came back at Natalie's wish?" "It's too incredible," returned Beatrice. "I can't believe it. Joyce, it must have been one of the servants, who turned off the light and put the box in here. One who had stolen it." "No, Blake saw nobody." "Was he in the hall?" "Yes, just where he was that other night. Oh, it's too weird. I don't know what to think!" "Maybe some one came in from outside----" "No, we were as silent as death itself. We would have heard a window or door open. There was no sound whatever, was there, Natalie?" "No. Spirits make no sound." The girl was still in a half-dazed state. Almost in a trance she was, even now, or, rather, she appeared so. "I can't stand it," she said. "I feel giddy. I'll go to my room." She went away, and the two other women stood, looking at each other. "It must have been Natalie," said Joyce, reluctantly. "You see, she did know where the jewels were and got them out of some hiding-place when I ran up to your room." "But how could she turn off the lights?" "I don't know, unless she has an accomplice among the servants. Sometimes I think Blake----" "No, Joyce, don't implicate Blake. I feel sure he is entirely innocent. Did you hear that voice clearly?"