serious the consequences may be; but only very young men act without any
prospects of success, as they are carried away by their feelings. When
you came to me the first time, I was obliged to refuse your request for
assistance, but to-day your shares have risen in value. It is now eight
o'clock, and I shall expect you in two hours' time, here in my office.
At present, all you have to do is to hold your tongue; everything else
is my affair."

As soon as it was dark, four men got into a closed carriage in the yard
of the police office, and were driven in the direction of the village of
S----; their carriage, however, did not enter the village, but stopped
at the edge of a small wood in the immediate neighborhood. Here they all
four alighted; they were the police director, accompanied by the young
Latitudinarian, a police sergeant and an ordinary policeman, who was,
however, dressed in plain clothes.

"The first thing for us to do is to examine the locality carefully," the
police director said; "it is eleven o'clock and the exorcisers of ghosts
will not arrive before midnight, so we have time to look round us, and
to take our measure."

The four men went to the churchyard, which lay at the end of the
village, near the little wood. Everything was as still as death, and not
a soul was to be seen. The sexton was evidently sitting in the public
house, for they found the door of his cottage locked, as well as the
door of the little chapel that stood in the middle of the churchyard.

"Where is your mother's grave?" the police director asked; but as there
were only a few stars visible, it was not easy to find it, but at last
they managed it, and the police director looked about in the