bt?"

"I understand so."

"Wonderful carving. And this door?"

"It is not a door, but a cupboard in the solid wall."

Sir Walter opened the receptacle as he spoke. The cupboard--some six and
a half feet high--was empty. At the back of it appeared a row of pegs
for clothes.

"I can finish with the room for the present at any rate, in an hour,
gentlemen," said Hardcastle. "I'll spend the time here till luncheon.
Had your son-in-law any interest in old furniture, Sir Walter?"

"None whatever to my knowledge. He was interested, poor fellow, not in
the contents, but in the evil reputation of the room. Its bad name dated
back far beyond the occupation of my family. Captain May laughed at my
mistrust, and, as you know, he came here, contrary to my express wishes,
in order that he might chaff me next morning over my superstition. He
wanted 'to clear its character,' as he said."

Hardcastle was turning over the stack of old oil-paintings in tarnished
frames.

"Family portraits?"

"Yes."

"You mistrusted the room yourself, Sir Walter?"

"After Nurse Forrester's death I did. Not before. But while attaching no
importance myself to the tradition, I respected it."

"Nobody else ever spent a night here after the lady's death?"

"Nobody. Of that I am quite certain."

"Have you not left the house since?"

"Frequently. I generally spend March, April, and May on the
Continent--in France or Italy. But the house is never closed, and my
people are responsible to me. The room is always locked, and when I am
not in residence Abraham Masters, my butler, keeps the key. He shares my
own feelings so far as the Grey Room is concerned."

The detective nodded. He was standing in the middle of the room with his
hands in his pockets.

"A strange fact--the force of superstition," he said. "It seems to feed
on night, where ghosts are involved. What, I suppose, credulous people
call 'the powers of darkness.' But have you ever asked yourself why the
spiritualists must work in the dark?"

"To simplify their operations, no doubt, and make it easier for the
spirits."

"And themselves! But why is the night sacred to apparitions and
supernatural phenomena generally?"

"Tradition associates them with those hours. Spiritualists say it is
easier for spectres to appear in the dark by reason of their material
composition. It is then that we find the most authentic accounts of
their manifestations."

"Yes; because at that time human vital