habit, but you know it's all nonsense. Mary loves this room. I'll
make you a sporting offer. Let me sleep in it to-night, and then,
when I report a clean bill to-morrow, you can throw it open again
and announce it is forgiven without a stain on its character.
You've just said you don't believe spooks have the power to hurt
anybody. Then let me turn in here."

Sir Walter, however, refused.

"No, Tom; most certainly not. It's far too late to go over the
ground again and explain why, but I don't wish it."

"A milder-mannered room was never seen," said Ernest Travers. "You
must let me look at it by daylight, and bring Nelly. The ceiling,
too, is evidently very fine--finer even than the one in my room."

"The ceilings here were all the work of Italians in Tudor times,"
explained his friend. "They are Elizabethan. The plaster is
certainly wonderful, and my ceilings are considered as good as
anything in the country, I believe."

He turned, and the rest followed him.

Henry removed the electric bulb, and restored it to its place
outside. Then his uncle gave him the key.

"Put it back in the cabinet," he said. "I won't go down again."

The party broke up, and all save Lennox and the sailor went to
their rooms. The two younger men descended together and, when out