I was asked
to look into.

"I gathered from one account that the haunting of the girls was so
constant and horrible that two of the girls' lovers fairly ran away from
their ladyloves. And I think it was this, more than anything else, that
made me feel that there had been something more in it than a mere
succession of uncomfortable coincidences.

"I got hold of these facts before I had been many hours in the house and
after this I went pretty carefully into the details of the thing that
happened on the night of Miss Hisgins's engagement to Beaumont. It seems
that as the two of them were going through the big lower corridor, just
after dusk and before the lamps had been lighted, there had been a
sudden, horrible neighing in the corridor, close to them. Immediately
afterward Beaumont received a tremendous blow or kick which broke his
right forearm. Then the rest of the family and the servants came running
to know what was wrong. Lights were brought and the corridor and,
afterward, the whole house searched, but nothing unusual was found.

"You can imagine the excitement in the house and the half incredulous,
half believing talk about the old legend. Then, later, in the middle of
the night the old Captain was waked by the sound of a great horse
galloping 'round and 'round the house.

"Several times after this both Beaumont and the girl said that they had
heard the sounds of hoofs near to them after dusk, in several of the
rooms and corridors.

"Three nights later Beaumont was waked by a strange neighing in the
nighttime seeming to come from the direction of his sweetheart's bedroom.
He ran hurriedly for her father and the two of them raced to her room.
They found her awake and ill with sheer terror, having been awakened by
the neighing, seemingly close to her bed.

"The night before I arrived, there had been a fresh happening and they
were all in a frightfully nervy state, as you can imagine.

"I spent most of the first day, as I have hinted, in getting hold of
details; but after dinner I slacked off and played billiards all the
evening with Beaumont and Miss Hisgins. We stopped about ten o'clock and
had coffee and I got Beaumont to give me full particulars about the thing
that had happened the evening before.

"He and Miss Hisgins had been sitting quietly in her aunt's boudoir
whilst the old lady chaperoned them, behind a book. It was growing dusk
and the lamp was at her end of the table. The rest of the house was