"Very well," said I slowly, for this speech too set me thinking. "I
will risk it. Come over early to-morrow, Dick. I shall cut an awkward
figure without you do," and getting on to his shoulder, I clambered up
on to the roof of the outhouse. He handed my valise to me; I pushed
back the catch of the window with the blade of my knife, lifted it,
threw my leg over the sill and silently drew myself into the room. The
room was very dark, but my eyes were now accustomed to the gloom. I
could dimly discern a great four-poster bed. I shut the window without
noise, set my valise in a corner, drew off my boots and lay down upon
the bed.
CHAPTER VII
TELLS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY INCIDENT IN
CULLEN MAYLE'S BEDROOM
I was very tired, but in spite of my fatigue it was some while before
I fell asleep. Parmiter had thrown a new light upon the business
tonight, and by the help of that light I arrayed afresh my scanty
knowledge. The strangeness of my position, besides, kept me in some
excitement. Here was I quietly abed in a house where I knew no one;
Clutterbuck might well talk about impertinence, and I could not but
wonder what in the world I should find to say if Dick was late in the
morning. Finally, there was the adventure of that night. I felt myself
again slipping down the wet grass and dangling over the precipice. I
heard again that unearthly screeching which had so frightened Dick and
perplexed me, It perplexed me still. I could not for a moment
entertain Dick's supposition of a spirit. This was the middle of the
eighteenth century, you will understand, and I had come fresh from
London. Ghosts and bogies might do very well for the island of Tresco,
but Mr. Berkeley was not to be terrified with any such old-wives'
stories, and so Mr. Berkeley fell asleep.
At what precise hour the thing happened I do not know. The room was so
dark that I could not have read my watch, even if I had looked at it,
which I did not think to do. But at some time during that night I woke
up quite suddenly with a clear sense that I had been waked up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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