irring in a noiseless flighty dance. Casting
# about for a remedy, I recalled the wax candles I had seen in the
corridor, and, with a slight effort, carrying a candle and leaving the
door open, I walked out into the moonlight, and presently returned with
as many as ten. These I put in the various knick-knacks of china with
which the room was sparsely adorned, and lit and placed them where
the shadows had lain deepest, some on the floor, some in the window
recesses, arranging and rearranging them until at last my seventeen
candles were so placed that not an inch of the room but had the direct
light of at least one of them. It occurred to me that when the ghost
came I could warn him not to trip over them. The room was now quite
brightly illuminated. There was something very cheering and reassuring
in these little silent streaming flames, and to notice their steady
diminution of length offered me an occupation and gave me a reassuring
sense of the passage of time.

Even with that, however, the brooding expectation of the vigil weighed
heavily enough upon me. I stood watching the minute hand of my watch
creep towards midnight.

Then something happened in the alcove. I did not see the candle go out,
I simply turned and saw that the darkness was there, as one might start
#and see the unexpected presence of a stranger. The black shadow had
sprung back to its place. "By Jove," said I aloud, recovering from my
surprise, "that draft's a strong one;" and taking the matchbox from^he
table, I walked across the room in a leisurely manner to relight the
corner again. My first match would not strike, and as I succeeded with
the second, something seemed to blink on the wall before me. I turned my
head involuntarily and saw that the two candles on the little table by
the fireplace were extinguished. I rose at once to my feet.

"Odd," I said. "Did I do that myself in a flash of absent-mindedness?"

I walked back, relit one, and as I did so I saw the candle in the
right sconce of one of the mirrors wink and go right out, and almost
immediately its companion followed it. The flames vanished as if the
wick had been suddenly nipped between a finger and thumb, leaving the
wick neither glowing nor smoking, but black. While I stood gaping the
candle at the foot of the bed went out, and the shadows seemed to take
another step toward me.

"This won't do!" said I, and first one and then another candle on the
mantelshelf followed.

"What's up