PART IV. (continued 3)
Reading edition
"I don't like to make rash promises," said Malcolm, "but if somebody I know is very good perhaps next summer she may see the Black Lake again, provided she will neither catch cold nor tumble off her pony."
Edith laughed and Helen blushed.
"But there's one thing still," said Edith, "which I don't understand. Why, Malcolm, did you always shut your door as the clock struck thirteen?"
"Very simply explained," replied he. "The first night I was here I was sitting up reading till midnight and thought I heard it strike thirteen. I thought it very odd, and for a night or two I listened till it began to strike and then opened my door to make sure I was not mistaken. And one night I went out with my candle to examine the clock, trying to make out the cause of it, and to see if I could put it right. No man, they say, can resist meddling with a clock even though he is no mechanical genius."
"All the same," said Edith triumphantly, "notwithstanding your examinations, you and no one else can tell the reason why that clock does strike thirteen."
THE END.
ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE Hyphenation is inconsistent; in a small number of instances, missing punctuation has been added. Several obvious misspellings have been corrected. The following additional change was made to punctuation in keeping with the logic of the plot (original is on the left):
The more I thought it over the more striking grew the coincidences at Finster. It had been on one of the closed doors that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall. The more I thought it over the more striking grew the coincidences. At Finster it had been on one of the closed doors that the shadow seemed to settle, as again here in our own hall.