oked as inhospitable as the rest of the place. After a
moment's delay it was opened two or three inches, and the surly face of
an old woman peeped out.

"And what may you be wanting?" she asked.

"A bed for the night," I replied; "can you accommodate me?"

She glanced suspiciously first at me and then at my camera.

"You are an artist, I make no doubt," she said, "and we don't want no
more of them here."

She was about to slam the door in my face, but I pushed my foot between
it and the lintel.

"I am easily pleased," I said; "can you not give me some sort of bed for
the night?"

"You had best have nothing to do with us," she answered. "You go off to
Harkhurst; they can put you up at the Crown and Thistle."

"I have just come from there," I answered. "As a matter of fact, I could
not walk another mile."

"We don't want visitors at the Castle Inn," she continued. Here she
peered forward and looked into my face. "You had best be off," she
repeated; "they say the place is haunted."

I uttered a laugh.

"You don't expect me to believe that?" I said. She glanced at me from
head to foot. Her face was ominously grave.

"You had best know all, sir," she said, after a pause. "Something
happens in this house, and no living soul knows what it is, for they who
have seen it have never yet survived to tell the tale. It's not more
than a week back that a young gentleman came here. He was like you, bold
as brass, and he too wanted a bed, and would take no denial. I told him
plain, and so did my man, that the place was haunted. He didn't mind no
more than you mind. Well, he slept in the only room we have got for
guests, and he--he _died there_."

"What did he die of?" I asked.

"Fright," was the answer, brief and laconic. "Now do you want to come or
not?"

"Yes; I don't believe in ghosts. I want the bed, and I am determined to
have it."

The woman flung the door wide open.

"Don't say as I ain't warned you," she cried. "Come in, if you must."
She led me into the kitchen, where a fire burned sullenly on the hearth.

"Sit you down, and I'll send for Bindloss," she said. "I can only
promise to give you a bed if Bindloss agrees. Liz, come along here this
minute."

A quick young step was heard in the passage, and the pretty girl whom I
had seen at the top of the lane entered. Her eyes sought my face, her
lips moved as if to say something, but no sound issued from them.

"Go and find your grandad," said the old woma