"Do you? Well, I'm blest if I do, then!" exclaimed Captain Weatherley. "There is one little point which you decidedly have not cleared up, if you don't mind my saying so. That thing!" Here he flung out his hand and made a sweeping gesture in the direction of the bell-tower, from which the discordant clang had all the time been sounding. "How about that, please? Who has been managing that little dodge, and--how?" "Oh, the ghost, you mean?" "Yes, the ghost, the power--the thing, or whatever it is, that rings bells without ropes, and yet--Uppingham, Essex, look round, look round, for Heaven's sake. It has got beyond mere sound alone--it has become visible now--visible! Look, there's a light there--a light!" "Yes," said Cleek. "It appeared for the first time last night. It gave me quite a shock for the minute, until I remembered." "Remembered?" "Yes. Our friend Mr. Overton arranged it for me. He knew, of course, that 'George Headland' would inspect the place some time or another, and he wanted to back up his little ghost story of the night before." "Overton? Overton, Mr. Cleek?" "Yes; he is a quite ingenious gentleman when you come to know him--only he is not very original at bottom, I fear. Would you like to see the Valehampton ghost laid, Captain? Would you like to know how bells can be rung without hands or ropes, or wires, or anything of that sort, gentlemen? Very well, then, step this way, and you shall." Here, beckoning Norton to follow, he walked to the lich-gate, opened it, and, accompanied by the six men, led the way to the belfry. The clanging bells still flung their discord upon the air, the globe of light still circled in the darkness of the tower's top, and, although the head which had devised it was laid low and the hand which had directed it was now a manacled one, the Valehampton ghost still played its uncanny part. Cleek turned to the gamekeeper, a smile hovering around his lips. "Gun for a minute, please, Norton. Thanks. Keep your eyes on the light, gentlemen, and stand back a bit. All ready, are you?" _Bang! Bang!_ The gun barked twice in rapid succession, and two charges of buckshot rattled against the bells. A scream, almost human in its note, shrilled out from the tower's top, the ball of light lurched outward and came tumbling downward till it struck the earth with a curious crunching sound, and then lay quiet in a cloud of fullers' earth. "Gentlemen, the Valehampton Ghost," said Cleek; then he whipped out his torch and switched a circle of light upon it where it lay--a little black monkey with a wire muzzle over its mouth and a sponge that glowed brightly and smelt strongly of phosphorus fastened to the top of its shattered head. And hard by the spot where it lay there was one single trail of its footprints going across the fullers' earth and pointing toward the stone tower. CHAPTER XVI CLEEK EXPLAINS