"Never mind," said Bella, with her eyes on the guilty faces of the married couple. "It is enough that I am here to accuse these two of murder." Mrs. Tunks uttered a screech. "What are you talking about, lovey? This good gentleman and kind lady have murdered no one." Bella glanced at her in a puzzled way. "You declared that Henry Vand murdered my father," she remarked quietly, and keeping up the fiction of her being Huxham's daughter; "you said that a cripple----" "Me!" screeched Granny again. "I never said such a thing." "Of course not," chimed in Vand, who was the first to recover his powers of speech. "It's all nonsense." "Your face showed that it was the truth just now," said Bella sharply, "when Mrs. Tunks talked in her sleep." "Sleep? No lovey, no sleep. I sent my spirit away to learn things. What did I say? Tell me, my good gentleman, what did I say?" "I don't remember. I forgot," said Vand striving to appear cool. "I don't forget," cried Bella indignantly, "she spoke of the jewels and of my father's murder. How did you find out?" she asked Granny Tunks, who dropped into her chair and seemed to shrink. "How did you learn about the jewels and Maxwell Faith?" "I never heard the name. I never knew there were any jewels," murmured the witch-wife. "I never said anything about murder. When I came back to my body I never remember anything. No, no, no! The spirit is stronger than the flesh and jealous of its secrets," and she went on murmuring and maundering like one in her dotage. Yet Bella knew well, that in spite of her age, Granny Tunks was very far from being intellectually weak. Meanwhile, Mrs. Vand, who had sunk into a chair, had gradually recovered her colour and wits. "You are the ghost!" she said suddenly to Bella. In spite of the strained situation, the girl laughed, though not very mirthfully. "Yes, I am the ghost!" she acknowledged. "It was I who sighed and rapped and rustled my skirts so as to drive you and Sarah out of the room." "How dare you! how dare you!" shouted Mrs. Vand, rising wrathfully. "What do you mean by entering my house, and how did you get in." "I got in by a way of which you know nothing," said Bella coolly, "and I am not going to reveal my secret. But I know this house better than you, Aunt Rosamund"--she gave her the old familiar name--"and I know of many secret passages. This,"--she touched the panel at her back--"is the entrance to one of them. In the old days many a conspirator concealed himself here. I have used the hiding-place to learn your secret." "How dare you! how dare you!" blustered Mrs. Vand, and would have gone on abusing Bella wrathfully but that her crafty husband interposed. "Miss Huxham, you have behaved wrongly in entering the house in this secret manner, seeing that I told you how welcome you were to come openly. Both Rosamund and myself would have been glad to see you."