In the
darkness of the stairway it absorbed itself, and the deaf man grasped
the balustrade where it had stood, and by his trembling shook the rails
violently. He then staggered back to his mantel, first bolting the door,
as if instinctively, and swallowed a draught of brandy from a medicinal
bottle there.
"There is a ghost abroad!" exclaimed Duff Salter with a shudder. "I have
seen it."
He turned the gas on very brightly, so as to soothe his fears with
companionable light. Then, while the perspiration stood upon his
forehead, Duff Salter sat down to think.
"Why does it haunt me?" he said. "Yet whom but me should it haunt?--the
executor of my friend, intrusted with his dying wishes, bound to him by
ancient ties, and recreant to the high duty of punishing his murderers?
The ghost of William Zane admonishes me that there can be no repose for
my spirit until I take in hand the work of vengeance. Yes, if women
have been accessory to that murder, they shall not be spared. Miss Agnes
is under surveillance; let her be blameless, or beware!"
CHAPTER VI.
ENCOMPASSED.
"He looks scared out of last year's growth," remarked Podge Byerly when
Duff Salter came down-stairs next day.
"Happy for him, dear, he is not able to hear what is around him in this
place!" exclaimed Agnes aloud.
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