Ben Allis had gone completely white under his pink-and-tan. Later, I knew why, but then I was merely surprised. Ben was not the man to be upset by preposterous hints of the supernatural. Fenwick tried to temporize. “But, Mrs. Medford, we can’t play with serious matters. We must respect the dead.” Fenwick had not looked ahead; it was obvious that he simply did not wish to be responsible for anything that purported to be a message. “He’s my brother! And if he gets through to you while I’m here, it’s for me. That is my property.” Allis came up and looked shamelessly over Fenwick’s shoulder at the writing. “No, it isn’t, Fanny. It’s Fenwick’s. He shall do absolutely what he pleases with it in my house. I’m responsible.” There was a curious morbid note of confession in his voice. But no one paid any attention to tones of voice, because a very undignified scene followed immediately on his words. Mrs. Medford clutched the papers that Fenwick held. She got away with the first page, too, and turned her back on us--heading for the drawing room beyond. “Don’t you dare, as you believe in a God, to destroy any of it,” she threw back over her shoulder. She had to fight for even her one page--not very hard, for of course Fenwick couldn’t struggle with her physically. The two men, Allis and Fenwick, looked ridiculous as they faced each other in the tacit admission that they couldn’t help themselves. Ben pulled himself together quickly. “Get that away from her, Maud--by force, if necessary.” “But, Ben----” “I said, ‘by force, if necessary,’ Maud,” he repeated sternly. She flew ahead after Mrs. Medford, obedient, but sowing her path with protesting murmurs. Genevieve Ford giggled nervously. Carter raised his eyebrows to the ceiling. “What _is_ up, you fellows?” he asked weakly. I heard Allis whisper to Fenwick: “Did you ever know him--Hilles?” “No. Never heard his name till tonight?” “Then what the devil----” “I thought you’d come to the devil in time.” This was Mrs. Conway on the outskirts. An indignant cry came back from Maud Allis. “Really, Ben, I can’t. You’d better come yourself. She won’t give it to me. Fanny, be sensible!” Then the sound trailed off further. We followed--Allis, Fenwick, Miss Ford, and I. We passed through the drawing-room where they had been a few seconds before, and out into the hall. Maud Allis stood there furious, a little dishevelled, sucking a hurt finger. “She’s locked herself into the telephone closet. I don’t know what you expect me to do.” “Not anything more. We can’t help it now. We’ll go away and leave her. She’ll come out.” But Maud was shaking with anger and nervousness. “How do you know she will? If it’s anything so bad that she oughtn’t to see it, she may never come out. She may just die there.” Allis smiled in spite of himself. “People don’t just die in telephone closets. And she’ll come out, if for nothing else, because she wants to see the rest of it.” “But if it should be so dreadful----”