le
one it is, at least so I am told, though I cannot say I have ever seen
it myself. No! I won't tell you anything about it now--I want to hear
your version of it first.'

"With a few more delicate insinuations, made, as he candidly confessed,
in the fervent hope of frightening me still more, on the stroke of
midnight my friend conducted me to my quarters. 'You will have it all to
yourself,' he said, as we traversed a tremendously long and gloomy
corridor that connected the two wings of the house, 'for all the rooms
on this side are at present unoccupied, and those immediately next to
yours haven't been slept in for years--there is something about them
that doesn't appeal to my guests. What it is I can't say--I leave that
to you. Here we are!' and, as he spoke, he threw open a door. A current
of icy cold air slammed it to and blew out my light, and as I groped for
the door-handle, I heard my host's footsteps retreating hurriedly down
the corridor, whilst he wished me a rather nervous good-night.

"Relighting my candle and shutting the window--Achrow is one of those
open-air fiends who never had a bronchial cold in his life, and expects
everyone else to be equally immune--I found myself in a room that was
well calculated to strike even the most hardened ghost-hunter with awe.

"It was coffin-shaped, large, narrow, and lofty; and floor, panelling,
and furniture were of the blackest oak.

"The bedstead, a four-poster of the most funereal type, stood near the
fireplace, from which a couple of thick pine logs sent out a ruddy
glare; and directly opposite the foot of the bed, with its back to the
wall, stood an ebony chair, which, although in a position that should
have necessitated its receiving a generous share of the fire's rays, was
nevertheless shrouded in such darkness that I could only discern its
front legs--a phenomenon that did not strike me as being peculiar till
afterwards.

"Between the chair and the ingle, was a bay window overlooking one angle
of the lawn, a side path connecting the back premises of the house with
the drive, and a dense growth of evergreens, poplars, limes, and copper
beeches, the branches of which were now weighed down beneath layer upon
layer of snow.

"The room, as I have stated, was long, but I did not realise how long
until I was in the act of getting into bed, when my eyes struggled in
vain to reach the remote corners of the chamber and the recesses of the
vaulted and fretted ceili