A smell of burnt cork arose as
John stooped and clapped his hand over the scorched stocking. When he
looked up again his visitors had vanished; and a moment later the
strange light, too, died away.

But the coffin remained for evidence that he had not been dreaming.
John lit a candle and examined it.

"Just the thing for me," he exclaimed, finding it to be a mere shell of
pine-boards, loosely nailed together and painted black. "I was
beginning to shiver." He knocked the coffin to pieces, crammed them
into the fireplace, and very soon had a grand fire blazing, before which
he sat and finished his penny-dreadful, and so dropped off into a sound
sleep.

The Lord Chamberlain arrived early in the morning, and, finding him
stretched there, at first broke into lamentations over the fate of yet
another personable young man; but soon changed his tune when John sat
up, and, rubbing his eyes, demanded to be told the time.

"But are you really alive? We must drive back and tell his Majesty at
once!"

"Stay a moment," said John. "There's a brother of mine, a lawyer, in
the city. He will be arriving at his office about this time, and you
must drive me there; for I have a document here of a sort, and must have
it stamped, to be on the safe side."

So into the city he was driven beside the Lord Chamberlain, and there
had his leg stamped and filed for reference; and, having purchased
another, was conveyed to the Palace, where the King received him with
open arms.

He was now a favoured guest at Court, and had frequent opportunities of
seeing and conversing with the Princess, with whom he soon fell deeply
in love. But as the months passed and the time drew near for their
marriage, he grew silent and thoughtful, for he feared to expose her,
even in his company, to the sights he had witnessed in the haunted
house.

He thought and thought, until one fine afternoon he snapped his fingers
suddenly, and after that went about whistling. A fortnight before the
day fixed for the wedding he drove into the city again--but this time to
the office of his other brother, the merchant.

"I want," he said, "a loan of a thousand pounds."

"Nothing easier," said his brother. "Here are eight hundred and fifty.
Of the remainder I shall keep fifty as interest for the first year at
five per cent., and the odd hundred should purchase a premium of
insurance for two thousand pounds, which I will retain as security
against accidents."

Th