"No, Norma, not this time. I prefer to be alone. I'll lock you and Vernie in your room; I'll lock Milly and Wynne in their room; I'll lock you four men in two rooms, and then, I'll know--I'll _know_ that whatever I see or hear is not a fraud or trick of _anybody_. And I think you can trust me to tell you the truth in the morning." "If there's anything to tell," supplemented Braye. "I think, Eve, as to ghosts, you're cutting off your source of supply." "Then we'll merely prove nothing. But I'm determined to try." Again Vernie begged to be allowed to share Eve's experiences, but neither Mr. Bruce, nor Eve herself would consider the child's request. "Every one of us," the Professor said, musingly, "has told of hearing mysterious sounds and of seeing mysterious shadows, but,--except for Bruce's graphic details!--all our observations have been vague and uncertain. They may well have been merely imagination. But Miss Carnforth is not imaginative, I mean, not so, to the exclusion of a fair judgment of what her senses experience. Therefore I shall feel, if she sees nothing to-night, that I shall see nothing when I sleep in that room to-morrow night." "I am especially well adapted for the test," Eve said, though in no way proudly, "for I have a premonition that the phantasm will appear to me more readily than to some others. Remember, I knew that was the haunted room before we had been told. I knew it before we entered the house that first night. It was revealed to me, as other things have been even during our stay here. You must realize that I am a sensitive, and so better fitted for these visitations than a more phlegmatic or practical person." "What else has been revealed to you, Eve?" asked Braye. "Perhaps revealed isn't just the word, Rudolph, but I've seen more than most of you, I've heard voices, rustling as of wings, and other inexplicable sounds, that I know were audible only to me." "Lord, Eve, you give me the creeps! Finished your tea? Come out for a walk then. Let's get off these subjects, if only for half an hour." That night, Eve Carnforth carried out her plans to the letter. Gifford Bruce, and his nephew Braye in one room; the Professor and Tracy in another, were locked in by Eve, amid much gaiety of ceremony. "Set a thief to catch a thief," Braye declared. "Tracy, look after the Professor, that he doesn't jump out of the window, and you, Professor, watch Tracy!" "They can't jump out the windows," said Eve, practically, "they're too high. And if they could, they couldn't get in the tasseled room. Those windows won't open. And, too, I know the Professor won't let Mr. Tracy out of his sight, or _vice versa_. Rudolph, you tie your uncle, if he shows signs of roving."