“Then I directed that lamps should be placed ’round the room, but that on no account must any light be made within the pentacle; neither must anyone pass in or out.  The girl’s mother I had placed within the pentacle and directed that her maid should sit without, ready to carry any message so as to make sure that Mrs. Hisgins did not have to leave the pentacle.  I suggested also that the girl’s father should stay the night in the room and that he had better be armed.

“When I left the bedroom I found Beaumont waiting outside the door in a miserable state of anxiety.  I told him what I had done and explained to him that Miss Hisgins was probably perfectly safe within the ‘protection’; but that in addition to her father remaining the night in the room, I intended to stand guard at the door.  I told him that I should like him to keep me company, for I knew that he could never sleep, feeling as he did, and I should not be sorry to have a companion.  Also, I wanted to have him under my own observation, for there was no doubt but that he was actually in greater danger in some ways than the girl.  At least, that was my opinion and is still, as I think you will agree later.

“I asked him whether he would object to my drawing a pentacle ’round him for the night and got him to agree, but I saw that he did not know whether to be superstitious about it or to regard it more as a piece of foolish mumming; but he took it seriously enough when I gave him some particulars about the Black Veil case, when young Aster died.  You remember, he said it was a piece of silly superstition and stayed outside.  Poor devil!

“The night passed quietly enough until a little while before dawn when we both heard the sounds of a great horse galloping ’round and ’round the house just as old Captain Hisgins had described it.  You can imagine how queer it made me feel and directly afterward, I heard someone stir within the bedroom.  I knocked at the door, for I was uneasy, and the Captain came.  I asked whether everything was right; to which he replied yes, and immediately asked me whether I had heard the galloping, so that I knew he had heard them also.  I suggested that it might be well to leave the bedroom door open a little until the dawn came in, as there was certainly something abroad.  This was done and he went back into the room, to be near his wife and daughter.

“I had better say here that I was doubtful whether there was any value in the ‘Defense’ about Miss Hisgins, for what I term the ‘personal sounds’ of the manifestation were so extraordinarily material that I was inclined to parallel the case with that one of Harford’s where the hand of the child kept materializing within the pentacle and patting the floor.  As you will remember, that was a hideous business.

“Yet, as it chanced, nothing further happened and so soon as daylight had fully come we all went off to bed.

“Beaumont knocked me up about midday and I went down and made breakfast into lunch.  Miss Hisgins was there and seemed in very fair spirits, considering.  She told me that I had made her feel almost safe for the first time for days.  She told me also that her cousin, Harry Parsket, was coming down from London and she knew that he would do anything to help fight the ghost.  And after that she and Beaumont went out into the grounds to have a little time together.