, too."

"I've been asked the same question before," answered the owner. "And
they are valuable. Lord Bolsover offered me a thousand guineas for
those two chairs; but the things are heirlooms in a sort of way, and
I shouldn't feel justified in parting with them. My grandfather
was furniture mad--spent half his time collecting old stuff on the
Continent. Spain was his happy hunting ground."

"It's positively a shame to doom these chairs to a haunted room, uncle,"
declared Henry.

But the other shook his head and smothered a yawn.

"The house is too full as it is." he said.

"Mary wants you to scrap dozens of things," replied his nephew. "Then
there'd be plenty of room."

"You'll do what you please when your turn comes, and no doubt cast out
my tusks and antlers and tiger-skins, which I know you don't admire.
Wait in patience, Henry. And we will now go to bed," answered the elder.
"I am fatigued, and it must be nearly midnight."

Then Tom May brought their thoughts back to the reason of the visit.

"Look here, governor," he said. "It's a scandal to give a champion room
like this a bad name and shut it up. You've fallen into the habit,
but you know it's all nonsense. Mary loves this room. I'll make you a
sporting offer. Let me sleep in it to-night, and then, when I report
a clean bill to-morrow, you can throw it open again and announce it is
forgiven without a stain on its character. You've just said you don't
believe spooks have the power to hurt anybody. Then let me turn in
here."

Sir Walter, however, refused.

"No, Tom; most certainly not. It's far too late to go over the ground
again and explain why, but I don't wish it."

"A milder-mannered room was never seen," said Ernest Travers. "You must
let me look at it by daylight, and bring Nelly. The ceiling, too, is
evidently very fine--finer even than the one in my room."

"The ceilings here were all the work of Italians in Tudor times,"
explained his friend. "They are Elizabethan. The plaster is certainly
wonderful, and my ceilings are considered as good as anything in the
country, I believe."

He turned, and the rest followed him.

Henry removed the electric bulb, and restored it to its place outside.
Then his uncle gave him the key.

"Put it back in the cabinet," he said. "I won't go down again."

The party broke up, and all save Lennox and the sailor went to their
rooms. The two younger men descended together and, when out of ear-shot
of his uncle