“Now what shall we do!” I exclaimed.  “There is no handle and the key is inside!”

“Hush!” she whispered.  “No more of these trivialities!  I tell you the Spirits are abroad to-night; the air is thick with unseen forms.  Obey me in silence, or you are lost.”

Speechless with annoyance, my teeth chattering with cold and general creepiness, I followed her through the shrubberies until we reached the site of a ruined chapel, which had originally joined on to the old wing of the house.  Of this building little remained except portions of the outer walls, overgrown with ivy.  The pavement had long since disappeared, and was replaced by a rank growth of grass and weeds, amongst which lay scattered such monumental remains as had survived the general destruction.  Only one window of the house happened to look out in this direction.  I could see a light shining through the blind, and, with a touch, drew Irene’s attention to it.

“Do not alarm yourself with vain fears,” she whispered; “it is only Mr. Maitland’s dressing-room.  All will be quiet soon!” As she spoke, the light was suddenly extinguished.

Only then did I realise the full horrors of my position.  When that bed-room candle went out, the last link which bound me to civilization seemed to have snapped.  I was at the mercy of an enthusiast who had broken loose from all those conventional trammels which I hold in such respect.  Although I had the greatest admiration for Irene, nothing would have surprised me less than if my murdered remains had been found next morning half hidden in the dank grass of the ruined chapel.

We were standing in the deep shadow of the old wall.  The silence was intense.  Indeed, after Irene’s injunctions, I hardly dared breathe for fear of drawing down some misfortune on my devoted head.  Not that I quite believed anything was going to happen, only it was best to be on the safe side.  Suddenly the stillness was broken by the distant sound of the stable clock striking twelve.

“It has come!” whispered Irene, stooping towards me with an expression of the utmost anxiety.  “Now you must obey me absolutely, or we shall both incur the wrath of the Unseen Powers.  No wavering!  We have gone too far to recede!  First, to establish the electric current between us, you must hold me firmly by the wrist and pass your hand slowly up and down my arm, repeating these words after me.”

I hesitated.  The proceeding struck me as extraordinary.

“Will you imperil us both?” muttered Irene, in such a tone of agony that I seized her arm and began to rub for my life.  I remember noticing that it was as cold and white as the arm of a marble statue.  Meanwhile Irene repeated an invocation, apparently in the same language in which she had addressed me at our first meeting, and I imitated her to the best of my ability.

After this had been going on a few minutes, she inquired in a whisper if I felt anything unusual.  I considered that my sensations were quite sufficiently peculiar to justify my replying in the affirmative.  She appeared satisfied.