“There!” he cried, suddenly jerking up his gleaming face. “You mean to tell me you can’t——” He was looking at her almost diabolically. But something else was too strong for him. His face wreathed with a startling, peculiar smile, seeming to gleam, and suddenly the most extraordinary laugh came bursting out of him, like an animal laughing. It was a strange, neighing sound, amazing in her ears. She was startled, and switched her machine quieter. A large form loomed up: a tall, cleanshaven young policeman. “A radio?” he asked laconically. “No, it’s my machine. I’m deaf!” said Miss James quickly and distinctly. She was not the daughter of a peer for nothing. The man in the bowler hat lifted his face and glared at the fresh-faced young policeman with a peculiar white glare in his eyes. “Look here!” he said distinctly. “Did you hear some one laughing?” “Laughing! I hear you, sir.” “No, _not_ me.” He gave an impatient jerk of his arm, and lifted his face again. His smooth, creamy face seemed to gleam, there were subtle curves of derisive triumph in all its lines. He was careful not to look directly at the young policeman. “The most extraordinary laughter I ever heard,” he added, and the same touch of derisive exultation sounded in his tones. The policeman looked down on him cogitatingly. “It’s perfectly all right,” said Miss James coolly. “He’s not drunk. He just hears something that we don’t hear.” “Drunk!” echoed the man in the bowler hat, in profoundly amused derision. “If I were merely drunk——” And off he went again in the wild, neighing, animal laughter, while his averted face seemed to flash. At the sound of the laughter something roused in the blood of the girl and of the policeman. They stood nearer to one another, so that their sleeves touched and they looked wonderingly across at the man in the bowler hat. He lifted his black brows at them. “Do you mean to say you heard nothing?” he asked. “Only you,” said Miss James. “Only you, sir!” echoed the policeman. “What was it like?” asked Miss James. “Ask me to _describe_ it!” retorted the young man, in extreme contempt. “It’s the most marvelous sound in the world.” And truly he seemed wrapped up in a new mystery. “Where does it come from?” asked Miss James, very practical. “_Apparently_,” he answered in contempt, “from over there.” And he pointed to the trees and bushes inside the railings over the road. “Well, let’s go and see!” she said. “I can carry my machine and go on listening.”