reply was more
than reassuring, and the landlord, after describing with considerable art
the exact appearance of a head which had been seen hanging out of a
window in the moonlight, wound up with a polite but urgent request that
they would settle his bill before they went.

"It's all very well for you young gentlemen to have your fun," he said
indulgently; "but supposing as how you are all found dead in the morning,
what about me? It ain't called the Toll-House for nothing, you know."

"Who died there last?" inquired Barnes, with an air of polite derision.

"A tramp," was the reply. "He went there for the sake of half a crown,
and they found him next morning hanging from the balusters, dead."

"Suicide," said Barnes. "Unsound mind."

The landlord nodded. "That's what the jury brought it in," he said
slowly; "but his mind was sound enough when he went in there. I'd known
him, off and on, for years. I'm a poor man, but I wouldn't spend the
night in that house for a hundred pounds."

[Illustration: "I'm a poor man, but I wouldn't spend the night in that
house for a hundred pounds."]

He repeated this remark as they started on their expedition a few hours
later. They left as the inn was closing for the night; bolts shot
noisily behind them, and, as the regular customers trudged slowly
homewards, they set off at a brisk pace in the direction of the house.
Most of the cottages were already in darkness, and lights in others went
out as they passed.

"It seems rather hard that we have got to lose a night's rest in order to
convince Barnes of the existence of ghosts," said White.

"It's in a good cause," said Meagle. "A most worthy object; and
something seems to tell me that we shall succeed. You didn't forget the
candles, Lester?"

"I have brought two," was the reply; "all the old man could spare."

There was but little moon, and the night was cloudy. The road between
high hedges was dark, and in one place, where it ran through a wood, so
black that they twice stumbled in the uneven ground at the side of it.

"Fancy leaving our comfortable beds for this!" said White again. "Let
me see; this desirable residential sepulchre lies to the right, doesn't
it?"

"Farther on," said Meagle.

They walked on for some time in silence, broken only by White's tribute
to the softness, the cleanliness, and the comfort of the bed which was
receding farther and farther into the distance. Under Meagle's guidance
the