,
evidently looking straight at Jim, but making no move to attack him.
What was Jim to do? He could not retreat down the staircase to the main
door, for that was to fall into the jaws of the hound. Neither could he
reach the library in safety.

CHAPTER XX

THE BANQUET HALL

Then Jim looked up at the wall which was paneled in some light wood and
there his eyes saw something that gave him the clue. He straightened up
and moved quickly towards the ghostly figure.

"How are you, Brian de Bois Guilbert?" he said as he came up. "I should
like to borrow your suit of armor if you don't mind."

The audacity of James. It was a gigantic suit of armor, and for the
moment Jim thought of trying to get into it, but he gave it up. Perhaps
as a last resort he might use it, to strike terror into the
superstitious greasers and cutthroats who were making their foul nest in
this once beautiful home.

It would be perfectly useless for him to try and put it on in the hall,
for it would make clangor enough to arouse the deaf or the dead. So Jim
very gently wheedled the image of the late Sir Brian inch by inch
towards the library and finally got it inside. Luckily there was only a
few feet to go, but it took Jim the better half of an hour. This
incident of the armor goes to show how carefully Jim was looking to a
possible chance in the future. Our old college chum, Jim, was certainly
strong on strategy.

"Now, you stay here, Brian, old Boy," he said, "until I come back; if
you don't I'll Ivanhoe your old block for you."

Then Jim slipped out in the passageway once more, and went immediately
to the place in the hall from whence he had sighted the armor man. There
on the wall were medieval weapons--battle-axes, swords and poniards.
These were what had given Jim his clue as to what the ghostly figure
really represented.

"I reckon that I will have to appropriate some of this hardware, before
I explore any further."

He finally selected a small and exceedingly keen poniard, also a short,
heavy sword, and thus equipped he was ready for what might come, which
as he well knew was apt to be the unexpected. As he stood motionless in
the dark hall, with its dimmed radiance at one end, he was sure that he
heard the faint sound of voices, which is not saying that the voices
were faint by any means.

As he went cautiously along, the sound of the voices came no nearer, but
they did not grow less distinct. This puzzled Jim exceedingly.