His mouth closed with a snap. Dr. Silence, after waiting a little to see
if he would add to his reply, did not seek to press him on the point.

"Well," he resumed presently, and as though he would speak
contemptuously, yet dared not, "this sort of thing has gone on at
intervals ever since. It spreads like wildfire, of course, mysterious
chatter of this kind, and people began trespassing all over the estate,
coming to see the wood, and making themselves a general nuisance.
Notices of man-traps and spring-guns only seemed to increase their
persistence; and--think of it," he snorted, "some local Research Society
actually wrote and asked permission for one of their members to spend a
night in the wood! Bolder fools, who didn't write for leave, came and
took away bits of bark from the trees and gave them to clairvoyants, who
invented in their turn a further batch of tales. There was simply no end
to it all."

"Most distressing and annoying, I can well believe," interposed the
doctor.

"Then suddenly, the phenomena ceased as mysteriously as they had begun,
and the interest flagged. The tales stopped. People got interested in
something else. It all seemed to die out. This was last July. I can tell
you exactly, for I've kept a diary more or less of what happened."

"Ah!"

"But now, quite recently, within the past three weeks, it has all
revived again with a rush--with a kind of furious attack, so to speak.
It has really become unbearable. You may imagine what it means, and the