INTERLUDE--THE DOCTOR'S STORY



It made me cry very much, that story, young Biffles told it with so
much feeling. We were all a little thoughtful after it, and I
noticed even the old Doctor covertly wipe away a tear. Uncle John
brewed another bowl of punch, however, and we gradually grew more
resigned.

The Doctor, indeed, after a while became almost cheerful, and told
us about the ghost of one of his patients.

I cannot give you his story. I wish I could. They all said
afterwards that it was the best of the lot--the most ghastly and
terrible--but I could not make any sense of it myself. It seemed
so incomplete.

He began all right and then something seemed to happen, and then he
was finishing it. I cannot make out what he did with the middle of
the story.

It ended up, I know, however, with somebody finding something; and
that put Mr. Coombes in mind of a very curious affair that took
place at an old Mill, once kept by his brother-in-law.

Mr. Coombes said he would tell us his story, and before anybody
could stop him, he had begun.