nt I had allowed the light to go out; now
recovering myself, I pressed the spring, and waved its rays backward
and forward down the stairway. The space was entirely empty, yet the
hesitating footsteps approached us, up and up. I could almost have
sworn on which step they last struck. At this interesting moment
Sophia Brooks uttered a piercing shriek and collapsed into my arms,
sending the electric torch rattling down the steps, and leaving us in
impenetrable darkness. Really, I profess myself to be a gallant man,
but there are situations which have a tendency to cause annoyance. I
carried the limp creature cautiously down the stairs, fearing the fate
of the butler, and at last got her into the dining-room, where I lit a
candle, which gave a light less brilliant, perhaps, but more steady
than my torch. I dashed some water in her face, and brought her to her
senses, then uncorking another bottle of wine, I bade her drink a
glassful, which she did.

'What was it?' she whispered.

'Madam, I do not know. Very possibly the club-footed ghost of
Rantremly.'

'Do you believe in ghosts, Monsieur Valmont?'

'Last night I did not, but at this hour I believe in only one thing,
which is that it is time everyone was asleep.'

She rose to her feet at this, and with a tremulous little laugh
apologised for her terror, but I assured her that for the moment there
were two panic-stricken persons at the stair head. Taking the candle,
and recovering my electric torch, which luckily was uninjured by its
roll down the incline the butler had taken, I escorted the lady to the
door of her room, and bade her good-night, or rather, good-morning.

The rising sun dissipated a slight veil of mist which hung over the
park, and also dissolved, so far as I was concerned, the phantoms
which my imagination had conjured up at midnight. It was about
half-past ten when the chief constable arrived. I flatter myself I put
some life into that unimaginative man before I was done with him.

'What made you think that the butler was mounting the stair when he
fell?'

'He was going up with my lord's breakfast,' replied the chief.

'Then did it not occur to you that if such were the case, the silver
pitcher would not have been empty, and, besides the broken dishes,
there would have been the rolls, butter, toast, or what not, strewn
about the floor?'

The chief constable opened his eyes.

'There was no one else for him to bring breakfast to,' he objected.