The Colonel asked me if I had experienced any unusual sensations the moment I entered the house, and I told him, “Yes.”

“Nearly everyone does,” he replied, “and yet, so far as I know, no one has ever seen anything.  The noises we hear all round the house have lately been more frequent.  I won’t describe them; I want to learn your unbiassed opinion of them first.”

We then had tea, and whilst the rest—­there was a large house-party—­indulged in music and cards, the Colonel and I had a delightful chat about old times.  I went to bed in the firm resolution of keeping awake till at least two; but I was very tired, and the excessive cold had made me extremely sleepy; consequently, despite my heroic efforts, I gradually dozed off, and knew no more till it was broad daylight and the butler entered my room with a cup of tea.  When I came down to breakfast I found everyone in the best of spirits.  The Onslows are “great hands” at original entertainments, and the announcement that there would be a masked ball that evening was received with tremendous enthusiasm.

“To-night we dance, to-morrow we feed on Easter eggs and fancy cakes,” one of the guests laughingly whispered.  “What a nicely ordered programme!  I hear, too, we are to have a real old-fashioned Easter Day—­heaving and lifting, and stool-ball.  Egad!  The Colonel deserves knighthood!”

Soon after breakfast there was a general stampede to Seeton and Dinstable to buy gifts; for in that respect again the Onslows stuck to old customs, and there was a general interchange of presents on Easter morning.  My purchases made, I joined one or two of the house-party at lunch in Seeton, cycled back alone to Eastover in time for tea; and, at five o’clock, commenced my first explorations of the grounds.  The sky having become clouded my progress was somewhat slow.  I did the Park first, and I had not gone very far before I detected the same presence I had so acutely felt the previous afternoon.  Like the scent of a wild beast, it had a certain defined track which I followed astutely, eventually coming to a full stop in front of a wall of rock.  I then perceived by the aid of a few fitful rays of suppressed light, which at intervals struggled successfully through a black bank of clouds, the yawning mouth of a big cavern, from the roof of which hung innumerable stalactites.  I now suddenly realized that I was in a very lonely, isolated spot, and became immeasurably perturbed.  The Unknown Something in the atmosphere which had inspired me with so much fear was here conglomerated—­it was no longer the mere essence—­it was the whole Thing.  The whole Thing, but what was that Thing?  A hideous fascination made me keep my gaze riveted on the gaping hole opposite me.  At first I could make out nothing—­nothing but jagged walls and roof, and empty darkness; then there suddenly appeared in the very innermost recesses of the cave a faint glow of crimson light which grew and grew, until with startling abruptness it resolved