Haunted houses -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction
"None," replied Bob, "that is likely to assist us. Some general
expressions of dislike toward Mme. Bernstein's employer, of whom they
seem to stand in some sort of fear--that is all. Neither the man nor
the child has ever been inside the house. But we made friends with
them, and that might have served us with Mme. Bernstein if you had not
already enlisted her. Everything seems to depend upon what will occur
during the next twenty-four hours."
We found Rivers lying on his back on the hill, with his hands clasped
behind his head.
"I have been watching the windows," he said, "and making a mental map
of the house. All the bedrooms seem to be situated at the back; the
ordinary living rooms are in front. See--there is a light in only one
of the rooms; there was a light in that room last night. It burns
steadily, and without flickering; the room is occupied, but no shadow
has appeared on the blind, nor has the light been shifted. Someone is
sleeping there, and sleeping undisturbed. If we stopped here till
daylight we should probably find that light still burning. Afraid to
sleep in the dark, denoting a nervous organization. Ah, observe. Two
rooms have just been entered; each person, entering, carried in a
candle with him; the lights shift and waver; there are shadows on the
blinds. One is the shadow of Mr. Nisbet, the other the shadow of Dr.
Cooper; their bedrooms adjoin. Rather restless those shadows. We have
the advantage of them; we can see them, they cannot see us lying here
in black darkness. I am in my element, and can work out theories. I
have done the same in country places in England, and the theories I
have worked out there have led to very useful conclusions. Isn't there
a German or French story of a man who sold his shadow to the devil? I
can imagine occasions when our friend Mr. Nisbet would gladly sell
his, for shadows are sometimes criminating witnesses. Those men do not
seem in a hurry to get to bed. One has gone into the other's room; the
flaring of the candle shows that he has left his door open. The
shadows of the two men are now in one room. They walk up and down in
their slippers--of that you may be sure. There is something so secret
and mysterious going on in the house--which might be a prison or a
private lunatic asylum--that the principal conspirators are careful to
make no noise. They have no wish to disturb the sleeper in the third
room, which, by a stretch of the fancy, we might suppose to be
occupied by a dead person. By the way, did Dr. Cooper have time to
bring his slippers with him from London? I should say not; therefore
he is wearing a pair of Mr. Nisbet's or is walking in his stocking
feet. Now they stop, now they walk about again, and now--yes, now they
go into the room which the first man left. Science has been busily at
work of late years, but it has not yet discovered a means of bringing
sound to our ears as this glass which I am holding brings the figures
of those men near to my eyes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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