my match-box, and lest
there should be any doubt about it, I had also provided myself with two
sperm candles, which I kept in my pocket, so I should not be left too
suddenly and too long in the dark.

"'Now Sir,' said he, 'I wish you to hold all your nerves steady and keep
your courage up, because I intend to stand by you as well as I can, but
I never come into this house alone.'

"'Well, what is the matter with the house?'

"'Oh! everything, Sir!'

"'What?'

"'Well, when I was much younger than I am now, the master of this estate
got frightened here by some mysterious appearances, noises, sounds,
etc., and he preferred to leave the place.'

"'Why?'

"'He had a tradition from his grandfather, and pretty well kept alive in
the family, that it was a haunted house; and he let out the estate to
the smaller farmers of the neighborhood, and quit the premises, and
never returned again, except one night, and after that one night he
left. We suppose he is dead. Now, Sir, if you wish to spend the night
here as you have requested, what may happen to you I don't know; but I
tell you it is a haunted house, and I would not sleep here to-night for
all the wealth of the Bank of England!'

"This did not deter me in the least, and having the means of
self-protection around me, and plenty of lucifer matches, etc., I
thought I would explore this mystery and see whether a humbug which had
terrified the proprietors of that magnificent house in the midst of a
magnificent estate, for upward of sixty years, could not be explored and
exploded. That it was a humbug, I had no doubt; that I would find it
out, I was not so certain.

"I sat down in the library, fully determined to spend the night in the
establishment. A door was opened into an adjoining room where there was
a dust-covered lounge, and every thing promised as much comfort as could
be expected under the circumstances.

"However, before the old keeper of the house left, I asked him to show
me over the building, and let me explore for myself the different rooms
and apartments. To all this he readily consented; and as he had some
prospect before him of making a good job out of it, he displayed a great
deal of alacrity, and moved along very quick and smart for a man
apparently eighty years of age.

"I went from room to room and story to story. Everything seemed to be
well arranged, but somewhat dusty and time-worn. I kept a pretty sharp
lookout, but I could see no sort of ma