TOnigHT my LAst NiGHt BeSt REGards PARSON LOLLY
Only the American girl remained limp in her chair, not bending forward for a sight of the words. While my gaze, as it must, fell on her and lingered there, ever such a shadowy smile crept from her lips to her eyes.
“Good people, good, good people, please don’t misjudge me. That placard has been hanging there since long before you came in. You didn’t see it because you weren’t on the look-out for it.”
“You knew it was there?” Crofts boomed. “And you didn’t warn us?”
“Warn you? Against myself?”
“Against yourself, dearest?” cried Millicent Mertoun, her face suddenly worn with anxiety.
Miss Lebetwood said, “I wrote that placard. I wrote it this evening and put it up there after Marvel’s crystal-gazing to-night. I did it just to show you that anybody could make a placard like that. This is the fifth, and perhaps the four others were done by four different persons.”
Accompanying the last words of her speech, the first strokes of twelve began to sound from the clock in the corner. There was a spell in the sound of its old music. We were hushed.
For the only time I saw Lord Ludlow’s face absolutely grey with fear. “There’s something moving in the wall!”
“Not in the wall—on the wall!”