"I have, or I should not have made it. But let us be amicable--be a-mi-ca-ble. I am willing to converse in a spirit of confidence. You have wounded me by your suspicions, and you have a design which you are hiding from me--from me, your best friend. Has your spectre appeared again?" "An hour ago I saw it at the window." Dr. Vinsen looked at his host incredulously. Dr. Pye placed a portrait before him. "I took this negative last night; I developed it this morning. Do you recognise it?" Dr. Vinsen's face grew pale as he gazed at the portrait of Samuel Boyd. "Are you mad?" he asked, "or am I?" "Do not be alarmed," said Dr. Pye, calmly; "the man is not there. It is the picture of a vision, and is one step farther in our knowledge of the power of the human will. When I received your letter this afternoon I determined that I would search the house to-night in your company; or, if you prefer it, I will search alone." "No; it shall be in my company. I am not afraid of ghosts." Dr. Pye smiled scornfully. "You turned white at the sight of the picture." "A momentary discomposure, nothing more. I do not deny that I have not your iron nerve. I am very human, my friend;--ve-ry hu-man." "Drop the mask," said Dr. Pye, sternly. "I am sick of your whining. Will you have some wine?" "Something stronger than wine." "To fortify yourself for a meeting with our spectre?" Dr. Pye laughed in derision, and produced a decanter of brandy, to which his visitor helped himself liberally. From the bottom of a cupboard he took a cobwebbed bottle of wine, which he handled and opened very carefully. He smiled as he held the glass up to the light, and then drank it slowly, as if it were really the elixir of life which popular rumour credited him with searching for. "I would give much," he said, "for that store of old wine which Samuel Boyd left behind him. Had it not been for you I would have had every bottle in this house." "And so risked discovery," said Dr. Vinsen. "As it was you courted danger by taking two bottles to gratify your insane tastes." "I have courted greater dangers and escaped them. You are too cautious, my friend. All my life I have found safety in boldness. You accuse me of withholding from your knowledge a design which I have in view. What design?" "In good time, my very dear friend. There are other matters first. Before we go into them, a question. Does your patient remain in the same state?" "There is no change in him." "He will disclose nothing?" "His mind is a blank." "That is the result of your fine plan," said Dr. Vinsen, with a sneer. "Perhaps you will acknowledge that my plan was the best--to silence him and leave him in the cellar." "I acknowledge nothing. The reasonable presumption was that he could have given us a clue. Time enough then to have silenced him. As it happens he has failed to be of service to us." "How will you dispose of him now without drawing suspicion upon you?"