said Mrs. Bradley. "That brings me back to my discrepancy, I believe. It's like trying to find a mistake in a column of figures. Ten to one you add it up again incorrectly, making the same mistake as you had made before. Have you ever done that?"
"Yes," said Muriel, looking pallid." But what's this all got to do with me?"
"What indeed?" said Mrs. Bradley with an unpleasant leer. "What, indeed? Well, good-bye, Mrs. Turney. I shall hope to see you again before the new trial."
"But you must tell me ... You must tell me what to expect," said Muriel wildly.
"Blessed is he that expecteth nothing," quoted Mrs. Bradley solemnly, "for he shall be gloriously surprised! And I shall be surprised," she added, as though to herself, "if I do not find the last clue I want in the haunted house."
"You are going there again?"
"To-night."
"Alone?"
"Well, I don't suppose there will be any point in taking Bella Foxley's lawyer with me, or the gentleman who led for the prosecution at the trial. Were you, by any chance, offering to come?"
"Me? Oh, I couldn't! As I told you before, my nerves simply wouldn't stand it."
"Yes, you did tell me, and I fully sympathise. You remember by the way, what you said about the poltergeist?"
"What—what do you mean?"
"Don't you remember telling me that you were always afraid that something inexplicable would happen in that house? I believe you used the expression 'playing with fire.' Do you believe that something outside human agency can function as a result of human interference with the province of the immaterial?"
"Something from beyond the veil, do you mean?" asked Muriel, with a shudder.
"I mean ..."
"Yes, I know what you mean. Well, I must say I'd rather you went there now than that I did. In fact, I couldn't do it. I really couldn't do it. I should die of fright if I so much as put my foot over the doorstep. After all, you never know what you might be invoking."
"True. Or provoking. That is what I mean. And, of course, three people were murdered there—one quickly, and two very slowly and horribly, weren't they?"
Muriel went so white that Mrs.. Bradley thought she was going to faint or be sick. She looked at her fixedly, until the widow showed signs of recovery.
"I expect I shall get to the house by about eleven to-night," she went on. "I suppose the electric switches are still functioning? Then I shall remain until people turn up to be shown over the house next day. If nobody comes, I shall leave as soon as I have made a thorough exploration of the place."
"Well, I wish you luck," said Muriel tremulously. "Be—be careful, won't you?"
"Very, very careful," said Mrs. Bradley, with her horrid cackle. "By the way," she added, "I have advised Bella to remind the court where she was, and what she was doing whilst those boys—whom I pledge myself to avenge!—were starving to death in that cellar."
The caretaker had no authority to admit Mrs. Bradley to the house, but made no objection to doing so.
"Come to see how them there old ghosties be getting on, like, I do suppose!" he said, with jocular intent.
"Exactly so," replied Mrs. Bradley solemnly. "And now, I want you to let me have this key until to-morrow. Will you?"
He scratched his head.
"I take it to be Miss Foxley, her's still the owner?" he said cautiously. "Although they do have her still in gaol?"
"Certainly she is. Who else?"
"Why, nobody. Think they'm going to hang her?"
"Who can say? The gentleman who defended her told me afterwards how well you gave your evidence."
He looked pleased, but observed anxiously :
"Ah, but, you see, I never told all I knowed."
"How was that?"
"Well, they didn't ask me, see? And they do take ee up so sharp if so be you answers out of your turn."
"Yes, that is perfectly true. I suppose you could have told them that Mrs. Turney visited the house alone, after the death of her husband and after Miss Foxley was arrested."
The old man gaped at her.
"That do be right, that do," he declared. "But how did ee know?"
"You told me so yourself."
"Oh, so that's it, is it? There isn't nothing in it, after all."
"I wouldn't say that. If you look out, a little later on, you may see her visit the house again. Take no notice. She has her key."
"Ah, yes, so she have. Her and Mr. Turney and Miss Foxley, all of 'em had keys. But I should have