"Yes, do, Norma. Don't let Eve come near me. I can't stand her!"
"Why? You mustn't be unjust to Eve. She behaved splendidly at that awful time."
"Yes, I know. But if it hadn't been for Eve we never would have come up here at all."
"Oh, Milly, that isn't fair! We all agreed to come here. It wasn't Eve's doing any more than mine!"
"Yes, it was. But, look here, Norma, tell me truly. What do _you_ think killed Mr. Bruce and Vernie?"
"I don't know, Milly, dear. You know I do believe in psychics and in spiritism and in the return to earth of the souls of people who have died, but--I _can't_ believe that any such spirit would kill an innocent child, or a fine old man. I can't _believe_ it!"
"But why not, Norma? If you believe in the return to earth of good spirits, why not bad spirits, as well? And if so, why couldn't they kill people, if they want to?"
"You sound logical, Milly, but it's absurd."
"No, it isn't. You and Eve believe in good spirits and in their power to do good. Why not, then, in bad spirits and their power to do evil?"
"Let up, Milly," begged Landon, who stood near by. "She's been going on like that, Norma, ever since I told her. Can't you explain to her----"
"Lord! _I_ don't know! But make her see how impossible it is that the ghost of that woman who killed her husband here so long ago, should have any reason to do away with two modern present-day people!"
"But I _want_ to think so, Wynne," and Milly's eyes stared with a peculiar light. "I'd rather think they were killed by that ghost than by a person,--wouldn't you?"
"Yes, Eve. That's what it must have been, if not spirits. They had no mortal disease, either of them."
"Don't mention that before any one else," admonished Eve, very seriously. "There are other explanations, Milly. Many deaths have been brought about by sudden fright or by continuous apprehension of imaginary danger. Vernie had been warned twice. True, I didn't think of four in the afternoon, but doubtless she did, and maybe, seeing the sudden attack of Mr. Bruce, so startled her that she thought of the four o'clock doom and gave way herself."
"She might give way to the extent of fainting, or a fit of hysterics," admitted Milly, "but not to the extent of dropping dead! It's unthinkable,--it's unbelievable----"