me on the arm when I started up and asked the answer.

"There's somebody in the house," she whispered, not a bit
frightened, to my surprise and dismay, "Maybe it's only the ghost
you told us about--what a lark!"

"Somebody in the house," I muttered, going on the stage blindly to
play my part; "and there isn't a gun in the castle."

"Yes there is," she answered, joyfully, I fancied; "mother brought
father's revolver over yesterday and made me put it in my satchel.
She said we would feel safer at night with it in the house. Do let
me shoot him; I can aim straight, indeed I can! Why, John, what
makes you tremble so?"

"I'm not trembling, you goose!" I snarled; "I can't find my shoes,
that's all. Doggone if I'm going to live in a joint like this with
ghosts and burglars all over the place."

Just then an alarming yell ascended from the regions below,
followed by a crash and a series of the most picturesque,
sulphur-lined oaths that mortal man ever gave vent to.

It was Bunch. His trademark was on every word. I could recognize
his brimstone vocabulary with my eyes shut.

But what dire fate had befallen him? Surely, not even an amateur
cracksman would give himself and the whole snap away unless the
provocation was great.