"I am quite willing to do what I can," he said, "and I will tell the happenings as I know them. For occasions when I was not present, or where my memory fails, the others will, I trust, be allowed to help me out." And then, the whole matter was laid before the intelligence of Pennington Wise, and with a rapt look of interest and a few pointed questions here and there, the detective listened to the history of his new case. At last, the account having been brought up to date, Wise nodded his head, and sat silent for a moment. It was not the melodramatic silence of one affecting superiority, but the more impressive quietude of a mind really in deep thought. Then Wise said, simply, "I've heard nothing yet to make me assume any supernatural agency. 'Ve you, Zizi?" "No," came a soft, thin voice from the shadowy depths of the rear hall. Milly jumped. "Has she been there all the time?" she said. "She's always there," returned Wise, in a matter-of-fact way. "Now I'm ready to declare that the deaths of your two friends are positively not due to spiritistic wills, but are dastardly murders, cleverly accomplished by human hands and human brains." "How?" gasped Eve Carnforth. She was leaning forward, her beryl eyes dilated and staring, her hands clenched, her slender form trembling with excitement. "That I do not know yet,--do you, Zizi?" "No," came tranquilly from the distance. "Let that girl come here," cried Milly, pettishly. "It gets on my nerves to have her speaking from way back there!" "Come here, Zizi," directed Penny Wise, and the slim young figure glided toward them. She was a mere slip of a girl, a wisp of humanity, in a flimsy frock of thin black stuff, with a touch of coral-tinted chiffon in bodice and sash. The skirt was short, and her black silk stockings and high-heeled pumps gave her a chic air. Her black hair was drawn smoothly back, in the prevailing mode, and though she had an air of world-knowledge, she was inconspicuous in effect. Without a glance at the people, personally, she sat down in a chair, a little apart, yet in full view of all. Wise paid no attention to her, and went on, thoughtfully. "No, there is no evidence pointing to the occult, but innumerable straws to show which way the camel's back is to be broken." "Mr. Wise," said Eve, determinedly, "I don't think it is fair for you to hear the story only from Mr. Tracy. I think he is opposed to a belief in psychics and so unintentionally colours his narrative to lead away from such theories." "That may be so," said Tracy, himself, looking thoughtfully at Eve; "and I agree it would be fairer to hear the story, or parts of it, retold by Miss Carnforth or some one who fully believes in spiritism." "Right," said Wise; "go ahead, Miss Carnforth, tell me anything that seems to you different in meaning from what Mr. Tracy has described."