So we sat on in silence. The faint light of the fire died away, giving place to total darkness. It was weary watching there, hour after hour, each hour seeming an age. Twelve o'clock struck; one; two! I'd have given something to be able to fall asleep. Just to speak a word to Miss Deveen would be a relief, and I forgot her injunctions. "Are you thinking of ghosts, Miss Deveen?" "Just then I was thinking of God, Johnny. How good it is to know that He is with us in the dark as in the light." Almost with the last word, my ears, younger and quicker than Miss Deveen's, caught the sound of a faint movement outside--as though steps were descending the stairs. I touched Miss Deveen's arm and breathed a caution. "I hear something. I think it is coming now." The door softly opened. Some white figure was standing there--as might be seen by the glimmer of light that came in through the passage window. Who or what it was, we could not gather. It closed the door behind it, and came slowly gliding along the room on the other side the table, evidently feeling its way as it went, and making for the window. We sat in breathless silence. Miss Deveen had caught my hand and was holding it in hers. Next, the shutters were unfastened and slowly folded back; then the window was unbolted and its doors were flung wide. This let in a flood of moonlight: after the darkness the room seemed bright as day. And the white figure doing all this was--Janet Carey in her nightgown, her feet bare. Whether Miss Deveen held my hand the tighter, or I hers, I dare say neither of us could tell. Janet's eyes turned on us, as we sat: and I fully expected her to go into a succession of shrieks. But no. She took no manner of notice. It was just as though she did not see us. Steadily, methodically as it seemed, she proceeded to search the room, apparently looking for something. First, she took the chintz cover off the nearest chair, and shook it out; turned over the chair and felt it all over; a small round stand was served the same; a blotting-case that happened to lie on the table she carried to the window, knelt down, and examined it on the floor by the moonlight, passing her fingers over its few pages, unfolding a letter that was inside and shaking it out to the air. Then all that was left on the floor, and she turned over another chair, and so went on. I felt as cold as charity. Was it her ghost that was doing this? How was it she did not see us sitting there? Her eyes were open enough to see anything! Coming to the secretary, she turned the key, and began her search in it. Pulling out one drawer first, she opened every paper it contained, shook them one by one, and let them drop on the floor. As she was commencing at the next drawer, her back towards us, Miss Deveen whispered to me. "We will get away, Johnny. You go on first. No noise, mind."