The clerk paused. Brandon regarded him steadily for a moment. Then he turned, and looked earnestly at the book.

“The burials were very hastily made.”

“Well?”

“And it is now believed that some were buried in a state of trance.”

“Buried alive?”

“Buried alive!”

There was a long silence. Brandon’s eyes were fixed on the book. At last he pointed to the name of Edith Brandon.

“Then, I suppose,” he said, in a steady voice, which, however, was in a changed key, “these letters ‘B’ and ‘A’ are intended to mean something of that description?”

“Something of that sort,” replied the clerk.

Brandon drew a long breath.