"Poor Sally! Poor little thing!" murmured Seth, as he gently placed the water-beetle on Sally's face, over which it instantly began to crawl. Sally screamed loudly, and jumped up. Seth gave a dry laugh, and replaced the water-beetle in the aquarium. "Oh, oh!" cried Sally. "Where am I?" "Don't be frightened, Sally," replied Seth. "You're in my cellar." "It's so dark!" moaned Sally. "It won't be after you've been here often," said Seth, in a sly tone. "What's been the matter with you, Sal?" Sally's answer was prompt. "I've been in a trance." "And you've had a vision," suggested Seth. "Oh, yes, yes," cried Sally. "How did you know?" Seth chuckled. "And you're going to prophesy," he said. "Yes, yes!" "Fire away, then," said Seth, shaking with laughter. But his laughter was noiseless, and Sally did not hear it. CHAPTER X. Sally hesitated before she made her first move. Playing at trances was a new game to her, and she was in the dark in more ways than one. But the crisis was an imminent one, and she was vaguely conscious that none but bold measures would help her safely through it. Yet she approached her subject warily, unaware that Seth's accustomed eyes could plainly discern the working of every muscle in her face. "I went off all of a sudden, didn't I?" was her first inquiry. "You did, Sally," replied Seth, "without saying with your leave or by your leave." "And you tried to bring me to." "And couldn't." "Right you are, Sally." "Then you carried me down here." "How do you know that?" asked Seth, so abruptly as to shake her nerves. "You must have done," she said in feverish haste. "How could I be here, else? People don't walk in trances, do they? Joanna didn't walk when she was in a trance, did she?" "Well, no," answered Seth, the corners of his eyelids wrinkling up with amusement. "I never heard that she did." A sigh of relief escaped Sally's bosom at this confirmatory evidence, and was followed by a chuckle from Seth. "It stands to reason, Sal, that if Joanna had walked, you'd have done the same." "In course I should," said Sally innocently. "Did I go off like Joanna?" "I should say there wasn't a pin to choose between you." A cunning smile played about Sally's lips. "You put somethink on my face." "Water, Sal, to bring you to." "But somethink else," said Sally, with a slight shudder, "somethink that crept and frightened me." "You see, Sally, you were so bad, and wanted such a deal of bringing to, that I had to take the water from my aquarium----" "What's that?" "You'll know by-and-bye. There's fish in it, and all sorts of things, and when I dipped the cup in, out came a water-beetle. There isn't a bit of harm in the little creatures, but they _do_ creep! Now for the vision, Sally." Sally puckered her eyebrows, and tightly interlaced her little fingers. "It was dark and it was light," she slowly commenced. "Not both at once. That could hardly be--though we don't quite know what happens in trances."