“I gathered from one account that the haunting of the girls was so constant and horrible that two of the girls’ lovers fairly ran away from their ladyloves.  And I think it was this, more than anything else, that made me feel that there had been something more in it than a mere succession of uncomfortable coincidences.

“I got hold of these facts before I had been many hours in the house and after this I went pretty carefully into the details of the thing that happened on the night of Miss Hisgins’s engagement to Beaumont.  It seems that as the two of them were going through the big lower corridor, just after dusk and before the lamps had been lighted, there had been a sudden, horrible neighing in the corridor, close to them.  Immediately afterward Beaumont received a tremendous blow or kick which broke his right forearm.  Then the rest of the family and the servants came running to know what was wrong.  Lights were brought and the corridor and, afterward, the whole house searched, but nothing unusual was found.

“You can imagine the excitement in the house and the half incredulous, half believing talk about the old legend.  Then, later, in the middle of the night the old Captain was waked by the sound of a great horse galloping ’round and ’round the house.

“Several times after this both Beaumont and the girl said that they had heard the sounds of hoofs near to them after dusk, in several of the rooms and corridors.

“Three nights later Beaumont was waked by a strange neighing in the nighttime seeming to come from the direction of his sweetheart’s bedroom.  He ran hurriedly for her father and the two of them raced to her room.  They found her awake and ill with sheer terror, having been awakened by the neighing, seemingly close to her bed.

“The night before I arrived, there had been a fresh happening and they were all in a frightfully nervy state, as you can imagine.

“I spent most of the first day, as I have hinted, in getting hold of details; but after dinner I slacked off and played billiards all the evening with Beaumont and Miss Hisgins.  We stopped about ten o’clock and had coffee and I got Beaumont to give me full particulars about the thing that had happened the evening before.

“He and Miss Hisgins had been sitting quietly in her aunt’s boudoir whilst the old lady chaperoned them, behind a book.  It was growing dusk and the lamp was at her end of the table.  The rest of the house was not yet lit as the evening had come earlier than usual.

“Well, it seems that the door into the hall was open and suddenly the girl said:  ‘H’sh! what’s that?’

“They both listened and then Beaumont heard it—­the sound of a horse outside of the front door.

“‘Your father?’ he suggested, but she reminded him that her father was not riding.

“Of course they were both ready to feel queer, as you can suppose, but Beaumont made an effort to shake this off and went into the hall to see whether anyone was at the entrance.  It was pretty dark in the hall and he could see the glass panels of the inner draft door, clear-cut in the darkness of the hall.  He walked over to the glass and looked through into the drive beyond, but there nothing in sight.