Page 636 of 657

"I took it up and examined it. It was of the same peculiar tint,

and the same thickness. But then the impossibility of the thing

obtruded itself upon me. How could my hair have been locked in

the drawer? With trembling hands I undid my trunk, turned out the

contents, and drew from the bottom my own hair. I laid the two

tresses together, and I assure you that they were identical. Was

it not extraordinary? Puzzle as I would, I could make nothing at

all of what it meant. I returned the strange hair to the drawer,

and I said nothing of the matter to the Rucastles as I felt that

I had put myself in the wrong by opening a drawer which they had

locked.