"Absolutely. I heard her lock it, as was her habit, and being the first person there on hearing the screams for help, I tried the door and found it still secured on the inside. Mr Shaw is half demented, and would not at first leave the poor young lady's side--until compelled to go to the Petty Sessions. It seems that there is an important case, and no other magistrate is at home to take his place on such short notice. But I'm expecting him back at any moment now." "And is Miss Asta still in her room?" I asked. "I think you said that the door was broken open." "Yes, sir. For that reason we've carried her into the green guest-room, which is lower down the corridor, nearer to my own." "Thank you, Mrs Howard," I said. "I'll go up and find the doctor. I know my way." Then, in quick anxiety, I breathlessly ascended the broad, thickly carpeted oak staircase, and a few moments later was in the room which I knew, by the door, was the apartment in which the weird occurrence had taken place. I recollected only too vividly my own terrible experience, and by those ejaculations which had so puzzled everybody, I knew that she had again witnessed that claw-like hand. The room, cosy, well-furnished and upholstered in pretty cretonne, was in great disorder. The bed--a brass one, with cretonne hangings over the head to match the furniture--was tumbled with half the clothes upon the floor, while the green satin down-quilt had been tossed some distance away. A chair lay overturned, and water and towels were about, showing the attempts at restoration. Upon a little wicker-table near the bed stood a shaded electric light, and a novel which my love had evidently been reading on the previous night, lay open. Yet though I investigated the room with careful deliberation, fearing every moment lest Shaw should return, I could detect nothing to account for the singular phenomenon. The window stood slightly open, but Mrs Howard had explained how it had been unlatched by herself. I examined the lock of the door. The key was still on the inside, while the hasp was broken; while the hasp of a small brass safety-bolt above had also been forced off. Hence the door must have been both locked and bolted. Certainly there could have been no intruder in that room. One object caused me curiosity, and my heart beat quickly. Upon the mantelshelf was a little framed snapshot of myself and her father which she had one day taken outside the Casino at Aix. But what had she seen within that room to cause her such a shock--nay, to produce upon her almost exactly the same symptoms which in the case of Guy Nicholson had terminated fatally? I heard a footstep in the corridor, and emerging from the room came face to face with the fussy old doctor in his rough tweeds. My unexpected appearance caused him to utter an exclamation of surprise, but when I asked breathlessly for news of his patient, he looked very grave and said--