The laugh died away, there was a sound like a scraping upon the wall, the candle was suddenly blown out.

Then his nerve began to return and with it his control over his limbs.

He crawled to the side of the bed remote from the curtains, stole to the little table on which he had left his revolver and an electric torch, snatched at them, and, with the former in his right hand, flashed a little orb of light into the shadows of the great apartment.

Once more something like terror seized him.

The figure which had been standing by the side of his bed had vanished.