“Fine bunch of hallucinations, doctor.”

“Almost commonplace,” retorted Malloy.

Presently I mentioned that the Rhamda had come from the basement on the night that Ariadne had materialised; and I showed that the only possible route into the cellar was through the locked door in the breakfast room, since the windows were all too small, and there was no other door.  Query:  How had the Rhamda got there?  Immediately they all became alert.  As Herold said: 

“One thing or the other is true; either there is something downstairs which has escaped you, Fenton, or else Avec is able to materialise in any place he chooses.  Let’s look!”

We all went down except Charlotte, who went upstairs to stay with Ariadne.  By turns, each of us held the ring.  And as we unlocked the basement door we noted that the invisible, walking creature had reached there before us.

Down the steps went those unseen little feet, jumping from one step to the next just ahead of us all the way.  When within three or four steps of the bottom, the creature made one leap do for them all.

I had previously run an extension cord down into the basement, and both compartments could now be lighted by powerful electric lamps.  We gave the place a quick examination.

“What’s all this newly turned earth mean?” inquired Sir Henry, pointing to the result of Jerome’s efforts a few months before.  And I explained how he and Harry, on the chance the basement might contain some clue as to the localisation of the Blind Spot, had dug without result in the bluish clay.

Sir Henry picked up the spade, which had never been moved from where Jerome had dropped it.  And while I went on to tell about the pool of liquids, which for some unknown reason had not seeped into the soil since forming there, the Englishman proceeded to dig vigorously into the heap I had mentioned.

The rest of us watched him thoughtfully.  We remembered that Jerome’s digging had been done after Queen’s disappearance.  And the dog had vanished in the rear room, the one in which Chick and Dr. Holcomb had last been seen.  Now, when Jerome had dug the clay from the basement under this, the dining-room, he had thrown it through the once concealed opening in the partition; had thrown the clay, that is, in a small heap under the library.  And—­after Jerome had done this the phenomena had occurred in the library, not in the dining-room.

“By Jove!” ejaculated General Hume, as I pointed this out.  “This may be something more, you know, that mere coincidence!”

Sir Henry said nothing, but continued his spading.  He paid attention to nothing save the heap that Jerome had formed.  And with each spadeful he bent over and examined the clay very carefully.

Miss Clarke and Mme. Le Fabre both remained very calm about it all.  Each from her own viewpoint regarded the work as more or less a waste of time.  But I noticed that they did not take their eyes from the spade.