“Wentworth sent for me the following day.  He had heard of me in connection with that Steeple Monster Case.  I arrived by the night mail, and put up with Wentworth at the inn.  The next day we went up to the old Manor, which certainly lies in rather a wilderness; though what struck me most was the extraordinary number of laurel bushes about the house.  The place was smothered with them; so that the house seemed to be growing up out of a sea of green laurel.  These, and the grim, ancient look of the old building, made the place look a bit dank and ghostly, even by daylight.

“The hall was a big place, and well lit by daylight; for which I was not sorry.  You see, I had been rather wound-up by Wentworth’s yarn.  We found one rather funny thing, and that was the great bullmastiff, lying stiff with its neck broken.  This made me feel very serious; for it showed that whether the cause was supernatural or not, there was present in the house some force exceedingly dangerous to life.

“Later, whilst Wentworth stood guard with his shotgun, I made an examination of the hall.  The bottles and mugs from which the men had drunk their whisky were scattered about; and all over the place were the candles, stuck upright in their own grease.  But in the somewhat brief and general search, I found nothing; and decided to begin my usual exact examination of every square foot of the place—­not only of the hall, in this case, but of the whole interior of the castle.

“I spent three uncomfortable weeks, searching; but without result of any kind.  And, you know, the care I take at this period is extreme; for I have solved hundreds of cases of so-called ‘hauntings’ at this early stage, simply by the most minute investigation, and the keeping of a perfectly open mind.  But, as I have said, I found nothing.  During the whole of the examination, I got Wentworth to stand guard with his loaded shotgun; and I was very particular that we were never caught there after dusk.

“I decided now to make the experiment of staying a night in the great hall, of course ‘protected.’  I spoke about it to Wentworth; but his own attempt had made him so nervous that he begged me to do no such thing.  However, I thought it well worth the risk, and I managed in the end to persuade him to be present.

“With this in view, I went to the neighboring town of Gaunt, and by an arrangement with the Chief Constable I obtained the services of six policemen with their rifles.  The arrangement was unofficial, of course, and the men were allowed to volunteer, with a promise of payment.

“When the constables arrived early that evening at the inn, I gave them a good feed; and after that we all set out for the Manor.  We had four donkeys with us, loaded with fuel and other matters; also two great boarhounds, which one of the police led.  When we reached the house, I set the men to unload the donkeys; whilst Wentworth and I set-to and sealed all the doors, except the main entrance, with tape and wax; for if the doors were really opened, I was going to be sure of the fact.  I was going to run no risk of being deceived by ghostly hallucination, or mesmeric influence.