to wait till the morning, when there would be no danger,
and then he could accompany me himself.
"Of course, I smiled a little at him, and told him not to bother. I
explained that I should do no more than look 'round a bit, and, perhaps,
affix a few seals. He need not fear; I was used to that sort of thing. But
he shook his head when I said that.
"'There isn't many ghosts like ours, sir,' he assured me, with mournful
pride. And, by Jove! he was right, as you will see.
"I took a couple of candles, and Peter followed with his bunch of keys.
He unlocked the door; but would not come inside with me. He was
evidently in a fright, and he renewed his request that I would put off
my examination until daylight. Of course, I laughed at him again, and
told him he could stand sentry at the door, and catch anything that came
out.
"'It never comes outside, sir,' he said, in his funny, old, solemn manner.
Somehow, he managed to make me feel as if I were going to have the
'creeps' right away. Anyway, it was one to him, you know.
"I left him there, and examined the room. It is a big apartment, and well
furnished in the grand style, with a huge four-poster, which stands with
its head to the end wall. There were two candles on the mantelpiece,
and two on each of the three tables that were in the room. I lit the lot,
and after that, the room felt a little less inhumanly dreary; though, mind
you, it was quite fresh, and well kept in every way.
"After I had taken a good look 'round, I sealed lengths of baby ribbon
across the windows, along the walls, over the pictures, and over the
fireplace and the wall closets. All the time, as I worked, the butler stood
just without the door, and I could not persuade him to enter; though I
jested him a little, as I stretched the ribbons, and went here and there
about my work. Every now and again, he would say:--'You'll excuse
me, I'm sure, sir; but I do wish you would come out, sir. I'm fair in a
quake for you.'
"I told him he need not wait; but he was loyal enough in his way to
what he considered his duty. He said he could not go away and leave
me all alone there. He apologized; but made it very clear that I did not
realize the danger of the room; and I could see, generally, that he was
in a pretty frightened state. All the same, I had to make the room so that
I should know if anything material entered it; so I asked him not to
bother me, unless he really heard or saw something. He was beginning
to get on my nerves, and the 'feel' of the room was bad enough, without
making it any nastier.
"For a time further, I worked, stretching ribbons across the floor, and
sealing them, so that the merest touch would have broken them, were
anyone to venture into the room in the dark with the intention of
playing the fool. All this had taken me far longer than I had anticipated;
and, suddenly, I heard a clock strike eleven. I had taken off my coat
soon after commencing work; now, however, as I had practically made
an end of all that I intended to do, I walked across to the settee, and
picked it up. I was in the act of getting into it, when the old butler's
voice (he had not said a word for the last hour) came sharp and
frightened:--'Come out, sir, quick! There's something going to happen!'
Jove! but I jumped, and then, in the same moment, one of the candles
on the table to the left went out. Now whether it was the wind, or what,
I do not know; but, just for a moment, I was enough startled to make a
run for the door; though I am glad to say that I pulled up, before I
reached it. I simply could not bunk out, with the butler standing there,
after having, as it were, read him a sort of lesson on 'bein' brave,
y'know.' So I just turned right 'round, picked up the two candles off the
mantelpiece, and walked across to the table near the bed. Well, I saw
nothing. I blew out the candle that was still alight; then I went to those
on the two tables, and blew them out. Then, outside of the door, the old
man called again:--'Oh! sir, do be told! Do be told!'
"'All right, Peter,' I said, and by Jove, my voice was not as
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the
Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.