‘The farce is over,’ said Griff.
’Mr. Edward Winslow’s carriage stops
the way!’
I was hoisted up, candle in hand, between the two,
and had nearly reached the stairs when there came
up on the garden side a sound as of tipsy revellers
in the garden. ’The scoundrels! how can
they have got in?’ cried Griff, looking towards
the window; but all the windows on that side had
peculiarly heavy shutters and bars, with only a tiny
heart-shaped aperture very high up, so they somewhat
hurried their steps downstairs, intending to rush
out on the intruders from the back door. But
suddenly, in the middle of the staircase, we heard
a terrible heartrending woman’s shriek, making
us all start and have a general fall. My brothers
managed to seat me safely on a step without much
damage to themselves, but the candle fell and was
extinguished, and we made too heavy a weight to fall
without real noise enough to bring the household together
before we could pick ourselves up in the dark.
We heard doors opening and hurried calls, and something
about pistols, impelling Griff to call out, ’It’s
nothing, papa; but there are some drunken rascals
in the garden.’
A light had come by this time, and we were detected.
There was a general sally upon the enemy in the
garden before any one thought of me, except a ‘You
here!’ when they nearly fell over me. And
there I was left sitting on the stair, helpless without
my crutches, till in a few minutes all returned declaring
there was nothing—no signs of anything;
and then as Clarence ran up to me with my crutches
my father demanded the meaning of my being there
at that time of night.
‘Well, sir,’ said Griff, ’it is
only that we have been sitting up to investigate
the ghost.’
’Ghost! Arrant stuff and nonsense!
What induced you to be dragging Edward about in
this dangerous way?’
‘I wished it,’ said I.
’You are all mad together, I think. I
won’t have the house disturbed for this ridiculous
folly. I shall look into it to-morrow!’
‘These are the reasons, they are natural.’
Julius Caesar.
If anything could have made our adventure more unpleasant
to Mr. and Mrs. Winslow, it would have been the presence
of guests. However, inquiry was suppressed
at breakfast, in deference to the signs my mother
made to enjoin silence before the children, all unaware
that Emily was nearly frantic with suppressed curiosity,
and Martyn knew more about the popular version of
the legend than any of us.
Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed. His head
was aching from a bump against the edge of a step,
and his cold was much worse; no wonder, said my mother;
but she was always softened by any ailment, and feared
that the phantoms were the effect of coming illness.
I have always thought that if Clarence could have
come home from his court-martial with a brain fever
he would have earned immediate forgiveness; but unluckily
for him, he was a very healthy person.
