“Later, however, I went up to my room, and proceeded with my photography.  I was steadier now, and it was just possible, so I hoped, that the negatives might show something.

“On two of the plates, I found nothing unusual:  but on the third, which was the first one that I snapped, I saw something that made me quite excited.  I examined it very carefully with a magnifying glass; then I put it to wash, and slipped a pair of rubber overshoes over my boots.

“The negative had showed me something very extraordinary, and I had made up my mind to test the truth of what it seemed to indicate, without losing another moment.  It was no use telling anything to Wentworth and the police, until I was certain; and, also, I believed that I stood a greater chance to succeed by myself; though, for that matter, I do not suppose anything would have taken them up to the Manor again that night.

“I took my revolver, and went quietly downstairs, and into the dark.  The rain had commenced again; but that did not bother me.  I walked hard.  When I came to the lodge gates, a sudden, queer instinct stopped me from going through, and I climbed the wall into the park.  I kept away from the drive, and approached the building through the dismal, dripping laurels.  You can imagine how beastly it was.  Every time a leaf rustled, I jumped.

“I made my way ’round to the back of the big house, and got in through a little window which I had taken note of during my search; for, of course, I knew the whole place from roof to cellars.  I went silently up the kitchen stairs, fairly quivering with funk; and at the top, I went to the left, and then into a long corridor that opened, through one of the doorways we had sealed, into the big hall.  I looked up it, and saw a faint flicker of light away at the end; and I tiptoed silently toward it, holding my revolver ready.  As I came near to the open door, I heard men’s voices, and then a burst of laughing.  I went on, until I could see into the hall.  There were several men there, all in a group.  They were well dressed, and one, at least, I saw was armed.  They were examining my ‘Barriers’ against the Supernatural, with a good deal of unkind laughter.  I never felt such a fool in my life.

“It was plain to me that they were a gang of men who had made use of the empty Manor, perhaps for years, for some purpose of their own; and now that Wentworth was attempting to take possession, they were acting up the traditions of the place, with the view of driving him away, and keeping so useful a place still at their disposal.  But what they were, I mean whether coiners, thieves, inventors, or what, I could not imagine.