Revealed by the weird light, the miserable countenance of the miser had never looked so contemptible. The sputtering flame seemed to have the power to betray all the miserly emotions and mean parsimonies usually concealed behind its starved pallor. The lips had fallen inanely apart with an absurd look of silly wonder. The eyes were wide open and stared directly ahead with the most unnatural expression or lack of it that Robert had ever beheld in the visage of mortal man. Even the detective, accustomed as he was to all sorts of uncommon spectacles, could not repress a slight disposition to shudder. One bony hand grasped the candlestick, and the other held some sort of round object, to which Robert directed his attention. By the sudden motion he made the detective knew that the young man had discovered what this object was, and pressed his arm warningly. _It was one of the canvas bags from the recess in the wall._ Just before the opening of the bin his uncle paused, like a speculative phantom, as if to consider its next doleful move. His entire countenance, upon nearer view, like the canvas which the painter has roughly outlined, was suggestive of anything, according to the fancy of the beholder. Upon this spiritless blank Robert depicted, with a morbid genius and the stimulation of his unnatural surroundings, all that was reminiscent of his uncle's littleness. But this uneasy transit from the room upstairs to the bin below, the vacant, irresponsible ensemble, the inscrutable determination to fulfill some strange obligation, enforced by what influence or moral unrest he could not tell, culminated in the mind of the young man in the only possible explanation: His uncle was engaged in the unaware execution of some fixed idea. He was responding to an uncontrollable, secret impulse, and Robert, guiding himself by the touch of his hand in order to locate his lips as close to the ear of the detective as he might, whispered with conviction: "Somnambulist!" "No," replied Gratz--"worse; be silent." Amazed and wondering what could possibly be worse, and rummaging through the garret of all his unusual experiences, Robert could find nothing to correspond to this inexplicable phenomenon; and it was with a sort of superstitious distraction that he beheld his uncle discard his transient hesitation and proceed with ghostly purpose to the opening of the bin. Advancing, Raikes placed the candle upon the bed of coals and began to unfasten the cord which secured the mouth of the bag which he carried. Robert had never beheld anything so ghastly as his uncle's eyes, intent but unseeing; nor so frightful as his motions, direct but unintelligent, like those of a midnight marionette controlled by invisible strings. In a few moments his efforts were successful, and the incredulous Robert beheld his uncle invert his precious burden and send a clinking, intrinsic shower of coin to the floor.