Bertram Chadgrove, half aroused by the strong light of the moon in his face, opened his dark eyes sleepily for a few minutes, and then turned over towards the wall, and prepared to slumber again.  But before he had sunk to sleep he became further aroused by a very peculiar sound in the wall (as it seemed), close to which his bed was stationed; and instead of drowsing off again, he woke up with all his faculties on the alert, much as a watchdog does, and sitting up in bed he listened with all his ears.

Yes; there could be no mistaking it!  There was certainly a sound—­a muffled, curious sound—­within the very wall itself.  He pressed his ear against the panel, and his eyes shone brightly in the moonlight.

“It is some living thing,” he whispered to himself.  “Methinks it is surely some human thing.  Rats can make strange sounds, I know, but not such sounds as these.  A human being, and within the thickness of the wall!  How can such a thing be?  I never heard the like before.  It comes nearer—­I hear the groping of hands close beside mine ear.  Heaven send it be not a spirit from the other world!  I fear no mortal arm, of flesh and blood, but I desire not to see a visitor from the land of shadows.”

For a moment the boy’s flesh crept on his bones, and the hair of his head seemed to rise up from his scalp.  The groping of those phantom hands against the wall just beside him was enough to fill the stoutest heart with terror, in an age when superstition was always rife.  He strove to call to his brothers; but his voice was no more than a whisper, and his throat felt dry and parched.  Failing in making himself heard by his companions, he cowered down and drew the clothes right over his head, shivering with fear; and it was several minutes before his native courage came to his aid, and he felt ashamed of this paroxysm of terror.

“Fie upon me for a white-livered poltroon!” he cried, as the chill sweat of fear ceased to break out upon him, and he rallied his courage and his determination.

“I am no better than a maid!  Shame upon me for a coward!  I will not call to Edred and Julian.  It shall not be said of me, even by mine own self, that I dared not face even a spirit from the lower world alone.  I will find out what this sound is, and that without the help of any other living soul, else shall I despise myself forever!”

And with that resolve hot within him, Bertram threw back his coverings and prepared to rise from his bed, when his attention was arrested by some strange stealthy sounds close against the great carved chimney piece, on the same side of the room as his own bed.