“It is for _you_ to take it away, Mr. Leyland!” Clement Leyland rose from his seat; he swayed like a drunken man, and there was madness in the glaring eyes that he turned in Klaw’s direction. “You--you----” he gasped. “I--I----” rumbled Moris Klaw, sternly, and took a step forward; “I have entered the Jacobite hiding place at Grange, and there I found a box! Ah! you glare! glare on, my friend! I returned that box to where I found it; but first I examined its contents! What! that demon laughter frightens you! Then descend, Mr. Leyland, descend and bring him out--the one who laughs!” Rigidly, Sir James sat in his chair; I, too, seemed to be palsied. But at sight of the next happening we both stood up. Moris Klaw stamped heavily upon the oaken floor in a deep recess; then applied his weight to a section of the seemingly solid stone wall. It turned, as on a pivot, revealing a dark cavity. He stood there, a bizarre figure, pointing down into the blackness. “Descend, my friend!” he cried. “The one who laughs is upon the seventh step!” “_The seventh step!_” In a whisper the words came from Clement Leyland. A draft of damp, cavernous air blew into the library out of the opening. “Descend, my friend!” Remorselessly, Moris Klaw repeated the words. In the centre of the room, Clement Leyland, a pitiable sight, stood staring--and hesitating. Suddenly his cousin spoke. “Don’t go, Clement!” he whispered. The other turned to him, dazedly. “Don’t go--down that place. But--O God! I understand at last, or partly.… _Quit!_ I give you half an hour!” Sir James sank back into his chair and buried his face in his hands; Moris Klaw never moved from where he stood by the cavity. But Clement Leyland, with bowed head, walked from the room. In the silence that followed his going-- “Await me, gentlemen,” rumbled Klaw; “I descend for the laughter!” He stepped into the opening. “One,” he counted, “two--three--four--five--” his voice came up to us from the depths--“_six!_” We heard him ascending. Walking into the library he placed upon the table beside Sir James a very large and up-to-date gramophone! “The laughter!” he explained, simply. “That night, my friends, when first I slept at Grange, I secured, among a host of other dreadful negatives, the negative of one who lurked in a secret hiding place. I saw him come creeping from the chimney corner, bearing a great mace which I recognized for one that had hung in the hall! Almost, the Science of the Mind betrayed me; for I mistook him for a thought-form! But the mind of Isis is _en rapport_ with the mind of her poor old father. In her dreams she saw my peril, and she it was who, screaming, saved me!--saved me from the murderer with the mace!” Sir James made no sign. Moris Klaw continued: