d man gave a start, and slopped some of the coffee. He stared up
at me, and I could see that he looked white and done-up. He came on up
the stairs, and held out the little tray to me. 'I'm very thankful
indeed, sir, to see you safe and well,' he said. 'I feared, one time, you
might risk going into the Grey Room, sir. I've lain awake all night, with
the sound of the Door. And when it came light, I thought I'd make you a
cup of coffee. I knew you would want to look at the seals, and somehow it
seems safer if there's two, sir.'

"'Peter,' I said, 'you're a brick. This is very thoughtful of you.' And I
drank the coffee. 'Come along,' I told him, and handed him back the tray.
'I'm going to have a look at what the Brutes have been up to. I simply
hadn't the pluck to in the night.'

"'I'm very thankful, sir,' he replied. 'Flesh and blood can do nothing,
sir, against devils; and that's what's in the Grey Room after dark.'

"I examined the seals on all the doors, as I went along, and found them
right; but when I got to the Grey Room, the seal was broken; though the
card, over the keyhole, was untouched. I ripped it off, and unlocked the
door, and went in, rather cautiously, as you can imagine; but the whole
room was empty of anything to frighten one, and there was heaps of light.
I examined all my seals, and not a single one was disturbed. The old
butler had followed me in, and, suddenly, he called out:--'The
bedclothes, sir!'

"I ran up to the bed, and looked over; and, surely, they were lying in
the corner to the left of the bed. Jove! you can imagine how queer I
felt. Something _had_ been in the room. I stared for a while, from the
bed, to the clothes on the floor. I had a feeling that I did not want to
touch either. Old Peter, though, did not seem to be affected that way. He
went over to the bed coverings, and was going to pick them up, as,
doubtless, he had done every day these twenty years back; but I stopped
him. I wanted nothing touched, until I had finished my examination. This,
I must have spent a full hour over, and then I let Peter straighten up
the bed; after which we went out, and I locked the door; for the room was
getting on my nerves.

"I had a short walk, and then breakfast; after which I felt more my own
man, and so returned to the Grey Room, and, with Peter's help, and one of
the maids, I had everything taken out of the room, except the bed--even
the very pictures. I examined the walls, floor and ceiling