ALONE--THE SECRET DOOR--UNSOCIABILITY--THE PICTURE--GRIM THOUGHTS--
ONE CHEERFUL IDEA--MELON--HIDING--CRUEL JOKES--SPIRAL--ANGLES--
ASSASSINS--WHITE LADY--A COMFORT--NERVES--THE DOOR--A GROWL--SNIFFS
--A FOLLOWER--REASONING--SAD THOUGHTS--OUT AT LAST.
Every one is silent for a minute, and then we smile at the absurd idea
of there being a ghost about. I linger for a few seconds after the
others. They go out on to the landing. When I leave the room I pass out
there too. They are all gone. I catch sight of a small door, in the
panelling, on my right at the end of this corridor, closing quickly.
They are gone evidently to visit some other quarter of the house. They
might have stopped for me. Very unsociable. One seems to hear every
footfall in this house. And even when you're not speaking, your thoughts
appear to find an echo, and to be repeated aloud. In this short narrow
gallery, there is an old picture of a man in a Spanish dress, holding a
melon in his hand. His eyes follow me. Curious effect. I stop for a
moment. They are fixed on me. Remember some story about this somewhere,
when it turned out that there was a man concealed, who came out to
murder people at night, living happily behind the picture in the
day-time. Cheer myself up by thinking that if Milburd had seen this
picture he'd have named it "The Meloncolic Man."
Odd. I don't hear their voices. They can't be playing me any trick, and
hiding. If there is a thing I detest, if there is one thing above
another absolutely and positively wicked and reprehensible, it is hiding
behind a door or a curtain ... or in fact behind anything ... and then
popping out on you suddenly. Heard of a boy to whom this was done, and
he remained an idiot for the rest of his life.
_Happy Thought._--To look cautiously _at_ the corners. To open the small
door quietly, and say, "Ah!" ... No. No one there. All gone down. A dark
narrow winding staircase (lighted only by loopholes), so that one is
perpetually going round angles and might come upon anyone, or anyone
upon you, without any sort of preparation. I can quite understand
assassins coming down on their victim, or up on their victim, or up and
down, simultaneously, on their victim, in one of these old places.
Assassins in the olden time. I wonder if it's true about the White Lady?
The old woman's husband was not a bit frightened of her, so she says.
Perhaps he had come home rather tipsy, and mistook some shadow in the
moonlight for a ghost.
My eyes are fast becoming accustomed to this obscurity.
_Happy Thought._--There are no such things as ghosts.
On the whole, I'd rather meet a ghost, than a rat, or a blackbeetle, or
a burglar.
The diminishing scale, of what I would rather _not_ meet in a narrow
staircase at night, is, the burglar, rat, blackbeetle, ghost.
I hear something moving... below or above...
I look cautiously back round the last corner...
Nothing.
_Happy Thought._--To shout out, "Hi! you fellows!" Shouting would
frighten a burglar, or a rat, but would have no effect on a blackbeetle,
or a ghost.
No answer. I descend a few more steps. Something seems to be coming down
behind me. Almost in my footsteps, and at my pace. Ah! of course, echo.
But why wasn't there an echo when I shouted?... I will go on quicker.
I'm not a bit nervous, only the sooner I'm out of this, the better. At
last a door. Thick, solid, iron-barred, and nail-studded door. Where's
the handle? None. Yes, an iron knob. It won't be turned. It won't be
twisted. It's locked; or, if not, fastened somehow. No; a faint light is
admitted through the keyhole, and by putting my eye to it, I can see a
stone passage on the other side. Perhaps the old woman has locked this
by accident. And perhaps they are not far off. I shake it. A deep, low
savage growl follows this, and I hear within two inches of my toes, a
series of jerky and inquisitive sniffs. The sniffs say, as it were,
"There's no doubt about it, I know you're there;" the growl adds, "Show
yourself, and I pin you."
_Happy Thought._--Go upstairs again and return by the other door.
Hope nobody, while I am mounting the steps again, will open the door and
let the dog up here for a run, or to "see who it is," in a professional
way.
No. Up--up--up. Excelsior. I seem to be climbing double the number of
steps, in going up, to what I did in coming down. My eyes too, after the
keyhole, have not yet become re-accustomed to the light. I pause. I
could almost swear that somebody, two steps lower down behind me,
stopped at the same instant.
Is there anyone playing the fool? Is it Milburd? I'll chance it, and
ask. I say, "Milburd?" cautiously. No. Not a sound. I own to being a
little nervous. Someone--Boodels, I think--once said that fine natures
were always nervous.
_Happy Thought._--When nervous, reason with yourself quietly.
I say, to myself, reasoning, this is not _fright_: this is not
_cowardice_: it's simply nervousness. You wouldn't (this addressed to
myself) be afraid of meeting a ... a ... for instance ... say ... a
ghost ... no. Why should you? You've never injured a ghost that you know
of, and why should a ghost hurt you? Besides ... nonsense ... there are
no ghosts ... and as to burglars ... the house doesn't belong to us yet,
and so if I meet one, there'd be no necessity to struggle ... on the
contrary, I might be jocosely polite; I might say, "Make yourself at
home; you've as much right here as I have." .... But, on second
thoughts, no one would, or could, come here to rob this place. It's
empty......
Odd. I cannot find the door I came in at. I thought that when I entered
by it, I stepped on to a landing, but I suppose that it is only a door
in the wall, and opens simply on to a step of the stairs.
Perhaps this is an unfrequented staircase. One might be locked up here,
and remain here, for anything that the old woman, or her husband, would
know about it.
If one was locked away here, or anywhere, for how long would it remain a
secret?
When one has been absent from town for instance, for months, and then
returns, nobody knows whether you've been in your own room all the time,
or in Kamschatka. They say, "Hallo! how d'ye do? How are you? Where have
you been this age?" They've never inquired. They've got on very well
without you. Important matters, too, which "absolutely demand your
presence," as the letter says, which you find on your table six months
afterwards, settle themselves without your interference.
The story of the Mistletoe Bough, where a young lady hides herself in an
oak chest, and is never heard of for years (in fact never at all until
her bones were found with her dress and wreath,) is not so very
improbable.
Suppose the old woman forgot this staircase, suppose my party went off
thinking that I was playing them some trick; supposing they stick to
that belief for four days, what should _I_ do?... I don't know. I could
howl, and shout. That's all.
What chance of being discovered have I, except by a tradesman wanting
his quarter's account settled very badly and being determined upon
hunting me up wherever I was.
A door at last! And light and fresh air through the chinks. It opens
easily, and I am on the leads of the roof.
With a [Illustration: BIRD'S-EYE VIEW] of the surrounding country. I
breathe freely once more. Now the question is how to get down again.
[Illustration: "SICH A GITTIN' UP STAIRS MASSA."]