Page:The Master of Mysteries (1912).djvu/94

 of the servants, and then to see the ghost for ourselves. Finally, we must lay the specter forever."

"I have thought that the phantom might have been impersonated by one of the servants," Valeska suggested.

"With that hypothesis we should seek a motive," he replied.

"I admit that's what has baffled me."

"Well, we must follow every clue, that's all."

Miss Fanshawe's man met them at the station with an open carriage, and Astro, seating himself beside the driver, immediately began to draw him out on the subject of the ghost. The man was Irish, and willing to talk. He himself, however, had not seen the spirit, though he believed implicitly in its existence. John, the stableman, had seen it, however, and Genevieve, Miss Fanshawe's maid. The third witness, an old woman who had been cook, had left the place, refusing to remain in a haunted house.

Miss Fanshawe greeted them hospitably and had them shown to their rooms by Genevieve. Before dressing for dinner Astro and Valeska had the story from her. She took them herself into the garden and pointed out the scene of the visitation.

A high brick wall screened the place from the street and enclosed it on three sides. The garden was laid out formally, with brick walks along the two axes of the rectangular space, and a circular pool with a fountain in the middle. The fourth side was shut off by the brick wall of the house itself, which there rose two stories in height. Along the south wall was planted a thicket of high bushes, interspersed with trees. This wall ran into the side of the house just below Miss