up his mind to give up the point of the blood-stain on the library
floor. If the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did not
deserve it. They were evidently people on a low, material plane of
existence, and quite incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of
sensuous phenomena. The question of phantasmic apparitions, and the
development of astral bodies, was of course quite a different
matter, and really not under his control. It was his solemn duty to
appear in the corridor once a week, and to gibber from the large
oriel window on the first and third Wednesday in every month, and he
did not see how he could honourably escape from his obligations. It
is quite true that his life had been very evil, but, upon the other
hand, he was most conscientious in all things connected with the
supernatural. For the next three Saturdays, accordingly, he
traversed the corridor as usual between midnight and three o'clock,
taking every possible precaution against being either heard or seen.
He removed his boots, trod as lightly as possible on the old worm-
eaten boards, wore a large black velvet cloak, and was careful to
use the Rising Sun Lubricator for oiling his chains. I am bound to
acknowledge that it was with a good deal of difficulty that he
brought himself to adopt this last mode of protection. However, one
night, while the family were at dinner, he slipped into Mr. Otis's
bedroom and carried off the bottle. He felt a little humiliated at
first, but afterwards was sensible enough to see that there was a
great deal to be said for the invention, and, to a certain degree,
it served his purpose. Still, in spite of everything, he was not
left unmolested. Strings were continually being stretched across
the corridor, over which he tripped in the dark, and on one
occasion, while dressed for the part of 'Black Isaac, or the
Huntsman of Hogley Woods,' he met with a severe fall, through
treading on a butter-slide, which the twins had constructed from the