“Without betraying his secret to any person in the house, he next morning made a careful examination of the room. The door he found locked as he had left it; the windows were both of them barred. That old-fashioned linen-chest which you saw last night, I should tell you, was not then kept in the room, and if it had been it could never have contained two, or even one being of the size of those whom my father had seen gliding about in the moonlight. It was impossible that they should have been secreted under the bedstead, which was too low to admit of such a supposition. The chimney was much too narrow, and, had it been otherwise, the white garments of the apparitions would have afforded sufficient proof that they did not enter by that means. The sliding panel in the wainscot was immoveable, having been made fast at the time that my father had the plate-closet removed to his own chamber. The thing was inexplicable: the more my father pondered on the matter, the more was he perplexed, and at length, finding no clue to the mystery, he resolved, whether wisely or not I cannot say, to keep it to himself, and comply with his friend’s entreaty never to allow any person to occupy the room again.
“Such was my father’s strange story, which he concluded by begging me, whenever I should take his place as master of the house, to prevent any one’s sleeping in that chamber,—and no one ever has done so till last night, when, you all are aware how much against my wish, the Major persisted in passing the night in a room which for such extraordinary reasons has been disused for so many years. I have nothing more to add, but Mr. Bradley will now tell you, not only what came to his knowledge several years ago, but of the discoveries he made this morning whilst we were out with our guns; and when you have heard his story I think you will agree with me in believing that he has thrown such a strong light on the spectres that they will never again venture to show themselves in this neighbourhood.”
Addressing himself to the Squire, Mr. Bradley said:
“Although I have been in orders almost forty years I never till to-day was called upon to lay a ghost! In former times, I believe, it was considered to be one part of the priest’s duty, and probably a very profitable part, for who would not pay a pretty round sum of money to get rid of such unwelcome visitors as those that you have just described moping and mowing, nodding their brainless skulls, and shaking their skeleton fingers to the terror of all good Christians who would fain sleep in peace; entering his room, too, in spite of locked doors and well-barred windows, and vanishing in the like miraculous manner! ’Tis horrible to think of! What incantations those long-headed old priests used to overcome the powers of darkness I am deplorably ignorant of. Perhaps, like me, they sometimes got a little peep behind the scenes, which is a vast help in these matters, and without which advantage, I confess, I should have been quite unable to fathom this mysterious affair.
“I must tell you, then, that about sixteen years ago, whilst I was still a resident in this parish, I was sent for one day to see Mrs. Lofty, the old housekeeper here, who was dying. I had buried her husband only a few weeks before. The old couple had for a great many years been considered as most trustworthy and conscientious servants of the old Squire, your father (for you were called the young Squire then), but it seems in one particular they had not deserved the confidence which was reposed in them. The woman, it seems, was greatly afraid of her husband, for whilst he was alive she had never had sufficient courage to confess the guilty part she had taken in deceiving her master. After his death, and feeling that her own end was approaching, she determined to relieve her conscience by making a full confession of the deception they had so successfully practised. She told me that in his youth her husband, like a great many men of his class on this coast, had often been actively engaged in smuggling spirits, and that long after he had discontinued going out to sea, and had to all appearance become a steady man, he had kept up a connection with smugglers, and aided them in various ways, but so cunningly that he never had been suspected by his master. You observed,” continued Mr. Bradley, addressing himself to me, “the beautiful view of the sea from the windows of the ‘haunted room,’ as it has been called for many years? Now there are only two bedrooms in the house which command this particular view, looking down the great avenue—the one just mentioned and the adjoining one, occupied by the man-servant. It was well known that a very favourite place for running a cargo of spirits on shore was just that spot opposite the end of the avenue, where it was easy to conceal the kegs amongst the black rocks at low water, and where the proximity of so many trees afforded concealment to the boat’s crew. In order to prevent, if possible, the room from being used at night, they gave it a bad name, and affected to believe that it was haunted, and so long as this scheme answered their purpose they took no other means; but if, in spite of the dark hints that the housekeeper threw out, any person should persist in sleeping there, they were prepared with some frightful disguises with which to terrify him sufficiently to prevent a second attempt at such an indiscretion. Still,” continued Mr. Bradley, again addressing the Squire, “this does not account for the most perplexing part of the business. I have no doubt that it was the belief that there was no other means of entering the room except by the door or windows, which were known to be securely fastened, which caused the terror that was felt both by your late father and by his friend. But there was, and there still is, if I have not been misinformed, a perfectly easy means of access from one of these rooms to the other, which, with your permission, sir, we will now go and examine. I expect that we shall find other proofs of roguery which will leave no doubt as to the character of the monstrous apparitions you have just described.”
We went upstairs into the man-servant’s room. Mr. Bradley opened the door of a closet by the side of the fireplace, at the back of which were five or six brass hooks, on which hung the man’s