ated by anything physical.

I cogitated all this in my mind as I gazed at the figure, and in order
to make sure it was no hallucination, I shut first one eye and then the
other, covering them alternately with the palm of my hand. The figure,
however, was still there, still pacing along at our side with the
regular swing, swing of the born walker. We kept on in this fashion till
we arrived at a rusty iron gate leading, by means of a weed-covered
path, to a low, two-storied white house. Here the figures left us, and
as it seemed to me vanished at the foot of the garden wall.

"This is the house," Mr. Baldwin panted, pulling up with the greatest
difficulty, the horse evincing obvious antipathy to the iron gate. "And
these are the keys. I'm afraid you must go in alone, as I dare not leave
the animal even for a minute."

"Oh, all right," I said. "I don't mind, now that the ghost, or whatever
you like to call it, has gone; I'm myself again."

I jumped down, and threading my way along the bramble-entangled path,
reached the front door. On opening it, I hesitated. The big,
old-fashioned hall, with the great, frowning staircase leading to the
gallery overhead, the many open doors showing nought but bare, deserted
boards within, the grim passages, all moonlit and peopled only with
queer flickering shadows, suggested much that was terrifying. I fancied
I heard noises, noises like stealthy footsteps moving from room to
room, and tiptoeing along the passages and down the staircase. Once my
heart almost stopped beating as I saw what, at first, I took to be a
white face peering at me from a far recess, but which I eventually
discovered was only a daub of whitewash; and, once again, my hair all
but rose on end, when one of the doors at which I was looking swung open
and something came forth. Oh, the horror of that moment, as long as I
live I shall never forget it. The something was a cat, just a rather
lean but otherwise material, black Tom; yet, in the state my nerves were
then, it created almost as much horror as if it had been a ghost. Of
course, it was the figure of the walking man that was the cause of all
this nervousness; had it not appeared to me I should doubtless have
entered the house with the utmost sang-froid, my mind set on nothing but
the condition of the walls, drains, etc. As it was, I held back, and it
was only after a severe mental struggle I summoned up the courage to
leave the doorway and explore. Cautiously, ve