“By the time that this was done, the policemen had unloaded the donkeys, and were waiting, looking about them, curiously.  I set two of them to lay a fire in the big grate, and the others I used as I required them.  I took one of the boarhounds to the end of the hall furthest from the entrance, and there I drove a staple into the floor, to which I tied the dog with a short tether.  Then, ’round him, I drew upon the floor the figure of a Pentacle, in chalk.  Outside of the Pentacle, I made a circle with garlic.  I did exactly the same thing with the other hound; but over more in the northeast corner of the big hall, where the two rows of doors make the angle.

“When this was done, I cleared the whole center of the hall, and put one of the policemen to sweep it; after which I had all my apparatus carried into the cleared space.  Then I went over to the main door and hooked it open, so that the hook would have to be lifted out of the hasp, before the door could be closed.  After that, I placed lighted candles before each of the sealed doors, and one in each corner of the big room; and then I lit the fire.  When I saw that it was properly alight, I got all the men together, by the pile of things in the center of the room, and took their pipes from them; for, as the Sigsand Ms. has it:—­’Theyre must noe lyght come from wythin the barryier.’  And I was going to make sure.

“I got my tape measure then, and measured out a circle thirty-three feet in diameter, and immediately chalked it out.  The police and Wentworth were tremendously interested, and I took the opportunity to warn them that this was no piece of silly mumming on my part; but done with a definite intention of erecting a barrier between us and any ab-human thing that the night might show to us.  I warned them that, as they valued their lives, and more than their lives it might be, no one must on any account whatsoever pass beyond the limits of the barrier that I was making.

“After I had drawn the circle, I took a bunch of the garlic, and smudged it right ’round the chalk circle, a little outside of it.  When this was complete, I called for candles from my stock of material.  I set the police to lighting them, and as they were lit, I took them, and sealed them down on the floor, just within the chalk circle, five inches apart.  As each candle measured approximately one inch in diameter, it took sixty-six candles to complete the circle; and I need hardly say that every number and measurement has a significance.

“Then, from candle to candle I took a ‘gayrd’ of human hair, entwining it alternately to the left and to the right, until the circle was completed, and the ends of the hair shod with silver, and pressed into the wax of the sixty-sixth candle.