in loudness, and at the same time they
heard the bolts of the latticed window
withdrawn, and the window itself grated
upon the sill as if thrown open.

One LAST shriek, so long and piercing
and agonised as to be scarcely human,
swelled from the room, and suddenly there
followed a death-like silence.

A light step was heard crossing the
floor, as if from the bed to the window;
and almost at the same instant the door
gave way, and, yielding to the pressure of
the external applicants, they were nearly
precipitated into the room. It was empty.
The window was open, and Schalken
sprang to a chair and gazed out upon
the street and canal below. He saw no
form, but he beheld, or thought he beheld,
the waters of the broad canal beneath
settling ring after ring in heavy circular
ripples, as if a moment before disturbed by
the immersion of some large and heavy mass.

No trace of Rose was ever after discovered,
nor was anything certain respecting
her mysterious wooer detected or even
suspected; no clue whereby to trace the
intricacies of the labyrinth and to arrive at