“Why hadn’t they emptied the waste-paper basket of all that lumber?
“The office-keeper had lighted a fire, and I took up the basket to perform the operation myself; but from some cause or other I placed it on the table and began idly to burn the scraps one by one.
“I had nearly disposed of them all when a scrap attracted my attention, and I read it; It was torn so as to leave a few words intact, and it ran thus—
“‘Louise has given your description, and you may rely on our finding you. Forward the plates at once, or——’
“Then another piece was mysterious, apparently a plan of some place or other.
“What did this mean?
“But I had no time to consider, for my friend entered, and, putting the two pieces of paper in my drawer, I emptied the basket in the fire, and went out with him to do a good day’s work.
“Returning late in the evening, I relit the fire, and addressed myself to the writing of two important letters to be posted by half-past eleven that night, in order to be in time for the Cunard steamer, which sailed early in the morning; and then it was that the black darkness of the doorless room opposite me began to trouble me most.
“It had troubled me before, but on this night it troubled me tenfold. From childhood I have been imaginative, and knowing this, I stirred the fire, called myself a fool, and went on with my letter; but not for long. My eyes wandered to the black darkness of the doorway, and I began to ransack my memory for statistics of men who could tell by some occult power if any one were hidden in the room they entered; and I laughed aloud when I remembered that I had read of one sensitive gentleman who by this same occult power had found that a surgeon’s skeleton was in the closet behind him.
“I own I dislike being in the dark, but I will do myself the justice to say that I have resolution enough to overcome the dislike.