"Nobody knows. Nobody ever knew. It had just disappeared from off the face of the earth. The doctor and the village folks all agreed that it was sperrited away. 'Cause that woman,--she couldn't get out o' the doors to cart it off, and she couldn't 'a' got out of a winder with it, without showin' some signs, and if she had, what in the world could she 'a' done with it? It wasn't buried nowhere around, and if she'd 'a' threw it in the lake, s'posin' she'd got out a winder, how'd she got in again? Anyhow, that's the story, and they all said she was a witch and she bewitched the body away, so's the doctor and sheriff couldn't smell the prussic acid on it and hang her for murder. They searched and searched but they couldn't find no signs of her havin' even moved outen her chair. She sat there like a dead woman herself, when the doctor left her and likewise when he come back." "The tale is very circumstantial," observed Gifford Bruce, a bit drily. "I'm tellin' it as I've many a time heard it, sir," said Stebbins, a little resentfully. "This here story's been common talk around these parts a many years, and I ain't one to add to nor take from it." "Go on," commanded Landon, briefly. "They put her away, in a loonytic asylum, and she died in it. They never found hide nor hair of the dead man, and the place fell to some kin that lived down Pennsylvania way. They come up here for a while, I b'lieve, but the ha'nt scared 'em off. It's been sold some several times and at last it fell to my father's family. Now it's mine, and it's a white elephant to me. I can't sell or rent it, and so you folks may well believe I jumped at the chance to have you take it for a spell." "We haven't heard about the haunt yet," said Norma. She spoke quietly, but her lips quivered a little, and her fingers were nervously picking at her handkerchief. "That," and Stebbins looked even more sombre than he had, "that's my own experience, so I can give it to you first hand. "I come here to live, 'bout ten years ago, and I was plucky enough to hoot at ghost stories and tales o' ha'nts. "So I set out to sleep in that--that room with the tassels,--out o' sheer bravado. But I got enough of it." The man's head fell on his breast and he paused in his narrative. "Go on," said Landon, less brusquely than before. Milly stirred nervously. "Don't let him tell the rest, Wynne," she said. "Oh, yes, dear. Remember, this is what we're here for." Most of the men shifted their positions; Hardwick leaned forward, both hands on his knees. Gifford Bruce sat with one arm flung carelessly over his chair back, a slight smile on his face. Braye was beside Norma, and watched alternately her face and Eve's, while Tracy was holding Vernie's hand, and his gentle calm kept the volatile child quiet. "I see it all so plainly,--that first night----" Stebbins said, slowly. "_First_ night! Land! there never was another! Not for me. I'd sooner 'a' died than slep' in that room again!"