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Updated: June 8, 2025
"Don't be afraid! It is I Meagle!" There was no answer. He stood gazing into the darkness, and all the time the idea of something close at hand watching was upon him. Then suddenly the steps broke out overhead again. He drew back hastily, and passing through the kitchen groped his way along the narrow passages.
"By the time I have done with him he will be a confirmed believer. Well, who will go and get some water? Will you, Barnes?" "No," was the reply. "If there is any it might not be safe to drink after all these years," said Lester. "We must do without it." Meagle nodded, and taking a seat on the floor held out his hand for the cup.
Meagle bawled in his ear and then turned a puzzled face to the others. "He sleeps like the dead," he said, grimacing. "Well, there are still three of us to keep each other company." "Yes," said Lester, nodding. "Unless Good Lord! suppose " He broke off and eyed them trembling. "Suppose what?" inquired Meagle. "Nothing," stammered Lester. "Let's wake him. Try him again. White! White!"
He tugged violently at the bell-handle, and the rusty jangling of a bell sounded from a distant kitchen. He rang again. "Don't play the fool," said Barnes roughly. Meagle laughed. "I only wanted to convince you," he said kindly. "There ought to be, at any rate, one ghost in the servants' hall." Barnes held up his hand for silence. "Yes?" said Meagle with a grin at the other two.
"Your play, White," he said after a pause. White made no sign. "Why, he is asleep," said Meagle. "Wake up, old man. Wake up and play." Lester, who was sitting next to him, took the sleeping man by the arm and shook him, gently at first and then with some roughness; but White, with his back against the wall and his head bowed, made no sign.
"Rats in the wainscot," chimed in Lester. "As you like," said Barnes coloring. "Suppose we all go," said Meagle. "Start after supper, and get there about eleven. We have been walking for ten days now without an adventure except Barnes's discovery that ditchwater smells longest.
Then at a scuffling noise behind him he turned and saw Meagle in a heap on the hearthstone. With a sharp catch in his breath he stood motionless. Inside the room the candle, fluttering in the draught, showed dimly the grotesque attitudes of the sleepers. Beyond the door there seemed to his over- wrought imagination a strange and stealthy unrest.
"It's all nonsense," said Jack Barnes. "Of course people have died in the house; people die in every house. As for the noises wind in the chimney and rats in the wainscot are very convincing to a nervous man. Give me another cup of tea, Meagle." "Lester and White are first," said Meagle, who was presiding at the tea-table of the Three Feathers Inn. "You've had two."
"There is a window at the back where we can get in, so the landlord says," said Lester, as they stood before the hall door. "Window?" said Meagle. "Nonsense. Let's do the thing properly. Where's the knocker?" He felt for it in the darkness and gave a thundering rat-tat-tat at the door. "Don't play the fool," said Barnes crossly.
Shadows danced on the walls and lurked in the corners as they proceeded. At the end of the passage they found a second staircase, and ascending it slowly gained the first floor. "Careful!" said Meagle, as they gained the landing. He held the candle forward and showed where the balusters had broken away. Then he peered curiously into the void beneath.
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