The man inserted the sharp end of the jimmy between the lid and the upper shelf of the desk. 'Phemie heard the woodwork crack, and this time she did _not_ suppress a gasp. Why! this fellow was actually breaking open the old doctor's desk. Aunt Jane had not even sent _them_ the keys of the desk and bookcases in this suite of rooms. Then 'Phemie had a sudden thought. She was really afraid of the big man. She did not know what he might do to her if he found her here spying on his actions. And--she didn't want the lock of the old desk smashed. She reached up softly and turned with shaking fingers the old-fashioned wooden button that held shut the door of the case beside which she crouched. She remembered very clearly that it had snapped open before when she was investigating--and with a little click. The door of this case acted almost as though the hinges had springs coiled in them. At once, when she released the door, it swung open--and in yawning it _did_ make a suspicious sound. Professor Spink started--he had been about to bear down on the bar again. He flashed a look back over his shoulder. But the corner was shrouded in darkness. 'Phemie sighed--this time with intent. She remembered how she had been frightened so herself at her former visit to this office--and she believed the marauder now before her had been partially the cause of her fright. The jimmy dropped from Spink's hand and clattered on the floor. He wheeled and shot the white spot of his lamp into the corner. By great good fortune the ray of the lantern missed the girl; but it struck into the yawning case and intensified the horrid appearance of the skeleton. For half a minute Spink stood as if frozen in his tracks. If he had known the old doctor had such a possession as the skeleton, he had forgotten it. Nor did he see any part of the case that held it, but just the dangling, grinning Thing itself, revealed by the brilliance of his spotlight, but with a mass of deep shadow surrounding it. Professor Spink had perhaps had many perilous experiences in his varied life; but never anything just like _this_. He might not have been afraid of a man--or a dozen men; no emergency--which he could talk out of--would have feazed him; but a man doesn't feel like trying to talk down a skeleton! He didn't even stop to pick up the jimmy. He shut off the spotlight; and he stumbled over his own feet in getting to the door. _He was running away!_ 'Phemie was up immediately and after him. She did not propose for him to get away with that key. "Stop! stop!" she shouted. Perhaps Professor Spink verily believed that the skeleton in the box called after him--that it was, indeed, in actual pursuit. He didn't stop. He didn't reply. He went across the small anteroom and out of the open green door. But he had made a lot of noise. A big man with the fear of the supernatural chilling his very soul does not tread lightly.