haunts. But then, towards the end of February, I received the
following letter which I may as well print in full: it serves as a
fitting and an explanatory introduction to a series of adventures, so
extraordinary, mysterious, and fraught with danger, that I am still
wondering how I, until then a man of peaceful and even dull life, ever
came safely through them.

"RAVENSDENE COURT, NEAR ALNWICK
NORTHUMBERLAND
February 24, 1912

"_Dear Sir_,

"I am told by my friend Mr. Gervase Witherby of Monks
Welborough, with whom I understand you to be well
acquainted, that you are one of our leading experts in
matters relating to old books, documents, and the like, and
the very man to inspect, value, and generally criticize the
contents of an ancient library. Accordingly, I should be
very glad to secure your valuable services. I have recently
entered into possession of this place, a very old
manor-house on the Northumbrian coast, wherein the senior
branch of my family has been settled for some four hundred
years. There are here many thousands of volumes, the
majority of considerable age; there are also large
collections of pamphlets, manuscripts, and broadsheets--my
immediate predecessor, my uncle, John Christopher Raven, was
a great collector; but, from what I have seen of his
collection up to now, I cannot say that he was a great
exponent of the art of order, or a devotee of system, for an
entire wing on this house is neither more nor less than a
museum, into which books, papers, antiques, and similar
things appear to have been dumped without regard to
classification or arrangement. I am not a bookman, nor an
antiquary; my life until recently has been spent in far
different fashion, as a Financial Commissioner in India. I
am, however, sincerely anxious that these new possessions of
mine should be properly cared for, and I should like an
expert to examine everything that is here, and to advise me
as to proper arrangement and provision for the future. I
should accordingly be greatly obliged to you if you could
make it convenient to come here as my guest, give me the
benefit of your expert knowledge, and charge me whatever fee
seems good to you. I cannot promise you