"Have you considered the possibility that some one is trading on your known enthusiasm for psychological research?" I asked. "Surely you do not mean Randall?" "No, but he may have been used as a tool. Frankly now, would you have undertaken this business just at the present time had it not been for Dr. Randall?" "Probably not." "So if you are being deceived it is being managed very subtly." "You are full of supposition. Let us get to work. You speak in your letter of an experience you had last night. What was it?" "You will say no doubt that my fear of the supernatural got the better of me." I told him the story of the looking-glass as we stood in front of it, our two faces looking out at us dimly. "Come away from it now, Wigan," he said when I had finished. "Burroughs thought you had fallen asleep, did he? You are convinced you were not dreaming, I presume?" "At the time I confess Burroughs rather shook my faith in myself, but during the day I have become certain that I did not sleep." Sitting on the other side of the bed--Quarles was very particular where he sat in the room--he questioned me closely about the actions of the shadows, and I answered him as well as I could. Only a very vague picture was in my mind. "It may astonish you to know, Wigan, that it was only your note this morning which brought me to this house at all to-night, I 'phoned to you at least a dozen times yesterday." "Why?" "I was afraid of to-night. Perhaps for the time being I have lost my grip a little on account of my nervous condition. I have had a long talk with Dr. Bates, and he tried to persuade me to give up the idea of spending a night here alone. He was rather doubtful about a supernatural solution to the mystery. Then I didn't like the agent when I went to him to arrange about the key. I shouldn't have entered the house with him to-night had I not known you were here." "Anything else?" I asked. "Always that strong presentiment of danger," he answered. "Were these hangings on the bed last night?" "It was exactly as you see it now." "The agent said the mattress and blankets had been put here for my convenience." "Did he say when they were put here?" "I thought he meant to-day," said Quarles. "No one has entered the house to-day," I answered. "Yet, if Greaves was murdered, some one must have gained access to this room somehow, in spite of the locked door and fastened window." "You have dropped the idea of the supernatural, then?" "I am keeping an open mind." "Shall we give it up and go, Professor?" "Certainly not. I am supposed to be alone in the house, so we will await events. On the other side of that wall where the glass hangs is No. 5, I suppose?" "Yes." "That is the boarding-house. Keep still a minute while I get an idea of the furniture against this opposite wall. Randall said a man and his four daughters lived at No. 9, didn't he?"