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 thing till we investigate the premises and see the apparition?"

"Oh, we'll go down, of course; but it's scarcely necessary, I consider."

Valeska's hands fell into her lap with a hopeless gesture. "Oh, dear!" she exclaimed. "I'll never learn anything! How in the world could you learn the secret of the ghost story, just by talking to her?"

"And watching her?" he hinted. "But take her talk, even. What did she say that might be significant?"

"Do you mean about that operation she had for appendicitis?" Valeska considered it thoughtfully. "Let's see. She mentioned the fact that she had her vermiform appendix removed, and it proved to be abnormally large. But that doesn't prove anything to me."

"Think it over. See if you can't put it with what I have told you, and, more important still, read Metchnikoff! I recommend to you his Prolongation of Life; but I won't tell you what chapter especially. There you'll find the missing link in the argument. You have already half of my theory, in the doctrine of 'vestigial organs', which you can apply to Miss Fanshawe's case. The other half I prefer you to work out for yourself. It's the simplest kind of deduction, and needs only corroboration at Fanshawe Farm. Let's see; she asked us to come down next Friday. That gives you three days in which to think it over."

He rose and yawned. "I wish you'd buy me some blue paint and a brush," he added. "Now I must put in a little time on that new somnoform experiment. I think I'm getting at it."