for something over an hour, until in turning I caught my foot in the
bell cord and went down on my face; but without hurting myself or
making a noise.

"When I got up Parsket nudged me.

"'Did you notice that the bell never rang?' he whispered.

"'Jove!' I said, 'you're right.'

"'Wait a minute,' he answered. 'I'll bet it's only a kink somewhere in
the cord.' He left his gun and slipped along the passage and taking the
top lamp, tiptoed away into the house, carrying Beaumont's revolver ready
in his right hand. He was a plucky chap, I remember thinking then, and
again, later.

"Just then Beaumont motioned to me for absolute quiet. Directly afterward
I heard the thing for which he listened--the sound of a horse galloping,
out in the night. I think that I may say I fairly shivered. The sound
died away and left a horrible, desolate, eerie feeling in the air, you
know. I put my hand out to the bell cord, hoping Parsket had got it
clear. Then I waited, glancing before and behind.

"Perhaps two minutes passed, full of what seemed like an almost unearthly
quiet. And then, suddenly, down the corridor at the lighted end there
sounded the clumping of a great hoof and instantly the lamp was thrown
with a tremendous crash and we were in the dark. I tugged hard on the
cord and blew the whistle; then I raised my snapshot and fired the
flashlight. The corridor blazed into brilliant light, but there was
nothing, and then the darkness fell like thunder. I heard the Captain at