thought nobody heard it but me. You mean the voice—the voice the night Mrs. Lorne died?"
The captain's chair creaked as he shifted his weight suddenly, but Odell merely nodded.
"Well, you see, sir, it was this way. We all knew by then that the mistress couldn't live; for Jane had heard one of the doctors, the last called in it was, tell Mr. Lorne so, and we were all upset, as you might know; for she was a—a rare lovely lady, sir, and a kind, good mistress. My room is on the fourth floor front, just over Mr. Julian's; and there was nothing above me but the trunk and store-rooms. I stayed up till midnight to see if I would be wanted, and then Miss Meade told me to go to bed; but I couldn't sleep though Marcelle and Jane and Gerda had long since quieted down.
"Of course, Miss Nan and Mr. Julian and Mr. Gene didn't go to bed all night; so there wasn't any sound except the church clock near striking the hours, and now and then a snore from Marcelle across the hall. It was after four o'clock, almost five, I guess, when a thin little thread of light came in under my door and traveled across the floor, and then went out again. I couldn't believe my eyes, for there hadn't been the sound of a footfall outside and I couldn't see what anybody would be doing with a light up there in our quarters at that hour; but I jumped out of bed and opened my door a crack very softly so as to make no noise.
I couldn't see anything, not a ray of the light which had shone under my door; but I heard a voice that seemed to come from somewhere in the air, and there—there wasn't anything human about it!"
