And the next thing Nick knew it was six o'clock of the following morning, and he was lying in a bed, looking up into Patsy's face.
CHAPTER VIII.
PATSY'S STORY AND THE TEST PROPOSED.
"Are you much hurt?" asked Patsy, anxiously.
Nick took in the whole scene before he replied.
Beside the bed were Colonel Richmond, Horace and a man whom Nick rightly judged to be a doctor.
"No," said Nick, "I'm not much hurt, except in my feelings. What happened, Patsy?"
"The ghost got away," responded the young man, in a tone of disgust.
"I wouldn't talk very much," said Colonel Richmond. "The doctor says that you have been subjected to a severe nervous shock, and--"
"My grandmother's ducks!" exclaimed Nick. "Nervous shock! Well, this makes me worse. Why, man, I've been sand-bagged."
The colonel shook his head.
"The power of the unseen forces," he began; but Nick interrupted him.
"Look here, Colonel Richmond!" he said, "if you had the sensation behind your ear that I've got, you wouldn't talk about mysterious powers of darkness. I know what's the matter with me, and what I want is a chance to get square."
"There is no evidence of any injury," said the physician.
"There never is in a case of this kind," rejoined Nick. "A sand-bag doesn't leave any mark. That's why it is so popular."
"It is impossible to convince a stubborn man," said the colonel. "I should think that this experience would have been enough."
"Quite enough, thank you," responded Nick, sitting up. "And so, if you gentlemen who kindly put me to bed will gracefully withdraw I will get into my clothes, and prove to you that I have had enough, and that it is somebody else's turn now."
He made them leave him with Patsy. Then he began to dress.
"Now tell me your story," he said.
"When I jumped for that spook," Patsy began, "I got the fearfulest thump on my crust that I've had since that marline-spike fell off the main yard on to me in the little affair of the Five Kernels of Corn.
"It couldn't have been a marker to what you got afterward, though. I went down, but not out.
"You saw me draw my gun. Well, when you yelled 'Don't fire!' I held off, but when I saw you go out I decided that all orders of that kind were canceled.
"I blazed away; and, Nick, I put five bullets through that figure just as sure as you're an inch high."
"What happened then?"
"The light went out. I got to your side, and flashed your lantern in half a second.
"The figure had vanished. The colonel's lamp stood on the sideboard just where he had put it.
"We had a fair light very soon. I examined you first, and, upon my word, I thought that you were done for.
"We got you up to this room, and Horace Richmond rode off for the doctor.
"From what he said about a nervous shock you can judge how much he knows.
"His help wasn't worth anything. I will back myself against him any day.
"I made sure that you were only stunned, and would come to all right.
Then I hurried down to that room and began my search.
"Well, you know that room. It is simply built up of traps and panels. A man can go through the floor or the walls almost anywhere.
"My job would have been a good deal easier if there'd been less of that secret machinery.
"When there are five hundred ways in which a thing could have been done, it's pretty hard to say which one is right.
"There's a trap pretty nearly in the spot where the figure stood.
Probably she came up and went down through that.
"But how about my shooting? There's the point.
"I took a direct line from the place where I was to the trap.
"Following that line, I came to the screen in front of the fire-place.
"In that screen, and about four and a half feet from the floor, were three bullets from my pistol. The other two are not there.
"Then, as I figure it out, that ghost has carried them away.
"My shooting was pretty good, considering the light. The three bullets were in the bigness of a watch-crystal.
"I feel sure that the other two were aimed just as well. If that's true, then one of the conspirators has some mighty serious wounds. Three went through her, and she stopped two.
"But there isn't a drop of blood to be found. The passage under the trap I have explored thoroughly.
"I can't find a human being or a trace of blood or any of the machinery which they must have used for the light or the ghost.
"Of course, the failure to find traces of the conspirators is not strange. These passages are so long, and so intricate, and so mighty well gotten up that I haven't had time to go through them all.
"But the wounded person is another matter. Where she is hidden is more than I can imagine."
"I hope it wasn't Miss Stevens," said Nick.