"I looked at the Captain and suddenly he said:

"'That--That--That--' and I know that he was trying to tell me that
Parsket had stood between his daughter and whatever it was that had gone
down the passage. I stood up and steadied him, though I was not very
steady myself. And suddenly his face began to work and he went down on to
his knees by Parsket and cried like some shaken child. Then the women
came out of the doorway of the bedroom and I turned away and left him to
them, whilst I over to Beaumont.

"That is practically the whole story and the only thing that is left to
me is to try to explain some of the puzzling parts, here and there.

"Perhaps you have seen that Parsket was in love with Miss Hisgins and
this fact is the key to a good deal that was extraordinary. He was
doubtless responsible for some portions of the 'haunting'; in fact I
think for nearly everything, but, you know, I can prove nothing and what
I have to tell you is chiefly the result of deduction.

"In the first place, it is obvious that Parsket's intention was to
frighten Beaumont away and when he found that he could not do this, I
think he grew so desperate that he really intended to kill him. I hate to
say this, but the facts force me to think so.

"I am quite certain that it was Parsket who broke Beaumont's arm. He knew
all the details of the so-called 'Horse Legend,' and got the idea to work
upon the old story for his own end. He evidently had some method of
slipping in and out of the house, probably through one of the many French
windows, or possibly he had a key to one or two of the garden doors, and