“We searched right through the secret ways, and found that there was an exit, at the end of a long tunnel, which opened in the side of a well, out in the grounds.  The ceiling of the hall was hollow, and reached by a little secret stairway inside of the big staircase.  The ‘blood-drip’ was merely colored water, dropped through the minute crevices of the ornamented ceiling.  How the candles and the fire were put out, I do not know; for the haunters certainly did not act quite up to tradition, which held that the lights were put out by the ‘blood-drip.’  Perhaps it was too difficult to direct the fluid, without positively squirting it, which might have given the whole thing away.  The candles and the fire may possibly have been extinguished by the agency of carbonic acid gas; but how suspended, I have no idea.

“The secret hiding paces were, of course, ancient.  There was also, did I tell you? a bell which they had rigged up to ring, when anyone entered the gates at the end of the drive.  If I had not climbed the wall, I should have found nothing for my pains; for the bell would have warned them had I gone in through the gateway.”

“What was on the negative?” I asked, with much curiosity.

“A picture of the fine wire with which they were grappling for the hook that held the entrance door open.  They were doing it from one of the crevices in the ceiling.  They had evidently made no preparations for lifting the hook.  I suppose they never thought that anyone would make use of it, and so they had to improvise a grapple.  The wire was too fine to be seen by the amount of light we had in the hall; but the flashlight ‘picked it out.’  Do you see?

“The opening of the inner doors was managed by wires, as you will have guessed, which they unshipped after use, or else I should soon have found them, when I made my search.

“I think I have now explained everything.  The hound was killed, of course, by the men direct.  You see, they made the place as dark as possible, first.  Of course, if I had managed to take a flashlight just at that instant, the whole secret of the haunting would have been exposed.  But Fate just ordered it the other way.”

“And the tramps?” I asked.

“Oh, you mean the two tramps who were found dead in the Manor,” said Carnacki.  “Well, of course it is impossible to be sure, one way or the other.  Perhaps they happened to find out something, and were given a hypodermic.  Or it is just as probable that they had come to the time of their dying, and just died naturally.  It is conceivable that a great many tramps had slept in the old house, at one time or another.”

Carnacki stood up, and knocked out his pipe.  We rose also, and went for our coats and hats.

“Out you go!” said Carnacki, genially, using the recognized formula.  And we went out on to the Embankment, and presently through the darkness to our various homes.

No. 3