So, with as little reflection as possible, he simply relit the
candle and went up to the next floor. The arm in his trembled, it
is true, and his own tread was often uncertain, but they went on
with thoroughness, and after a search revealing nothing they
climbed the last flight of stairs to the top floor of all.
Here they found a perfect nest of small servants' rooms, with
broken pieces of furniture, dirty cane-bottomed chairs, chests of
drawers, cracked mirrors, and decrepit bedsteads. The rooms had low
sloping ceilings already hung here and there with cobwebs, small
windows, and badly plastered walls—a depressing and dismal region
which they were glad to leave behind.
It was on the stroke of midnight when they entered a small room
on the third floor, close to the top of the s
