The Lock and Key Library - Classic Mystery and Detective Stories: Old Time English by Unknown
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page 10 of 461 (02%)
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"Then it IS haunted?"
"Well!" cried the landlord, in an outburst of frankness that had the appearance of desperation--"I wouldn't sleep in it." "Why not?" "If I wanted to have all the bells in a house ring, with nobody to ring 'em; and all the doors in a house bang, with nobody to bang 'em; and all sorts of feet treading about, with no feet there; why, then," said the landlord, "I'd sleep in that house." "Is anything seen there?" The landlord looked at me again, and then, with his former appearance of desperation, called down his stable-yard for "Ikey!" The call produced a high-shouldered young fellow, with a round red face, a short crop of sandy hair, a very broad humorous mouth, a turned-up nose, and a great sleeved waistcoat of purple bars, with mother-of-pearl buttons, that seemed to be growing upon him, and to be in a fair way--if it were not pruned--of covering his head and overrunning his boots. "This gentleman wants to know," said the landlord, "if anything's seen at the Poplars." "'Ooded woman with a howl," said Ikey, in a state of great freshness. |
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