"I'm afraid, Jim."

"But you are not afraid if you are with me, Roddy. I'll promise you
that no ghost shall hurt you."

So I gave him my word that I would come, and then all the rest of
the day I went about the most sad-faced lad in Sussex. It was all
very well for Boy Jim! It was that pride of his which was taking
him there. He would go because there was no one else on the country
side that would dare. But I had no pride of that sort. I was quite
of the same way of thinking as the others, and would as soon have
thought of passing my night at Jacob's gibbet on Ditchling Common as
in the haunted house of Cliffe Royal. Still, I could not bring
myself to desert Jim; and so, as I say, I slunk about the house with
so pale and peaky a face that my dear mother would have it that I
had been at the green apples, and sent me to bed early with a dish
of camomile tea for my supper.

England went to rest betimes in those days, for there were few who
could afford the price of candles. When I looked out of my window
just after the clock had gone ten, there was not a light in the
village save only at the inn. It was but a few feet from the
ground, so I slipped out, and there was Jim waiting for me at the
smithy corner. We crossed John's Common together, and so past
Ridden's Farm, meeting only one or two riding officers upon the way.
There was a brisk wind blowing, and the moon kept peeping through
the rifts of the scud, so that our road was sometimes silver-clear,
and sometimes so black that we found ourselves among the brambles
and gorse-bushes which lined it. We came at last to the wooden gate