Murder had been done long ago in one of its empty, dusty rooms -- and it was since then that the victim walked, it was said. Lights had been seen flitting, window to window -- and the apparition of an old woman in brocaded silk appeared . . .

The house at No. 13 stands empty and desolate, despite the cheerful neatness of everything else on Geneva Square. People speak of it in whispers, with daunted looks: for No. 13 is haunted -- having stood empty for over twenty years. They call it the Silent House of Pimlico.

Yet how silent can it be -- for now when someone dares to search it, top to bottom, he is found stone-cold dead on the floor -- with a knife in his heart!

Fergus Hume (1859-1932) was author of novels of mystery and detection including bestselling The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.