, but it would be
extremely unsafe to venture forth in that way. If I prized life and limb
I must seek some other method of egress. I at once put my apprehensions
in my pocket and entered upon my self imposed task.

A single glance was sufficient to exhaust the resources of the empty
garret in which I found myself. Two or three old chairs piled in one
corner, a rusty stove or so, a heap of tattered and decaying clothing,
were all that met my gaze. Taking my way, then, at once to the ladder,
whose narrow ends projecting above a hole in the garret floor, seemed
to proffer the means of reaching the rooms below, I proceeded to descend
into what to my excited imagination looked like a gulf of darkness. It
proved, however, to be nothing more nor less than an unlighted hall of
small dimensions, with a stair-case at one end and a door at the other,
which, upon opening I found myself in a large, square room whose immense
four-post bedstead entirely denuded of its usual accompaniments of bed
and bolster at once struck my eye and for a moment held it enchained.
There were other articles in the room; a disused bureau, a rocking
chair, even a table, but nothing had such a ghostly look as that antique
bedstead with its curtains of calico tied back over its naked framework,
like rags draped from the bare bones of a skeleton. Passing hurriedly
by, I tried a closet door or so, finding little, however, to reward my
search; and eager to be done with what was every moment becoming more
and more drearisome, I hastened across the floor to the front of the
house where I found another hall and a row of rooms that, while not
entirely stripped of furniture, were yet sufficiently barren to
offer little encouragement to my curiosity. One only, a small but not
uncomfortable apartment, showed any signs of having been occupied within
a reasonable length of time; and as I paused before its hastily spread
bed, thrown together as only a man would do it, and wondering why the
room was so dark, looked up and saw that the window was entirely covered
by an old shawl and a couple of heavy coats that had been hastily nailed
across it, I own I felt my hand go to my breast pocket almost as if I
expected to see the wild faces of the dreaded Schoenmakers start up all
aglare from one of the dim corners before me. Rushing to the window, I
tore down with one sweep of my arm both coat and shawl, and with a start
discovered that the window still possessed its draperies