They stood before the great fireplace which a thrifty ancestor had built into the east wall, and enjoyed to the full the warmth that had not as yet reached the remote spaces of the gloomy chamber. It needed a fire to bring some show of comfort to this wilderness of dust and cobwebs. A few pieces of colonial furniture stood out in the melancholy wastes--a faded lounge, a gargantuan dresser, several stiff-backed chairs still nursing their puritanism. At the far end of the room various objects of a decidedly modern appearance, suggesting the workshop of a physicist, aroused David's curiosity. For an explanation of these he turned to Leighton. "Is this your laboratory?" he asked. "What do you think of it?" was the reply. "Plenty of space, isn't there? A man could have a score of ghosts here--ghosts of monks, you know--nosing about for their comfortable old quarters." "Not so very comfortable in their day, Uncle," suggested Una; "nor in ours, for that matter." Leighton chuckled grimly. "Are you interested in ghosts, David?" he asked, looking keenly at him. "What do you mean by ghosts?" "Ah, that's it! This old room--are there ghosts in it, I wonder? The nail marks in the walls, the stains where the lights were hung, the shadowy remains of the altar--can you shake off the feeling that the Brotherhood is still at prayers here, that it still has Stoneleigh for its home?" "The Brotherhood no longer exists." "There's a family tradition, anyway, that assures us of its ability to produce some excellent examples of the old-fashioned, conventional ghost. A very great aunt of mine, for instance, once ventured alone into this room and was met by a stalwart being who scowled at her from under his brown hood and waved her majestically out of his presence." "That's the kind of ghost one likes to hear about and see," commented David. "It didn't please my aunt particularly. The fright prostrated her for months. Other imaginative ancestors have heard the monks chanting together, and seen spectral lights moving about here at midnight." "You speak as if you believed it all." "I can't be defrauded of my family traditions." "How queer it is!" exclaimed Una, who had been wandering about the room and now rejoined Harold and David before the fireplace. "I like it, even if it is dirty. Why have you broken your rule and brought us here, Uncle? And why do you talk as if you believed in the Stoneleigh ghosts? You know you don't." "Ghosts!" he ejaculated. "I have been making some experiments recently. I thought you might be interested in them." "Experiments in ghosts," ruminated David, who believed Leighton capable of anything. "Yes," said the old man, enjoying his bewilderment. "My ghosts may be different from those you have in mind. If you have followed the recent developments in psychology you probably know that there are ghosts attached to the living, whatever the case may be in regard to the dead." "No, I never heard that."