Moving stealthily from the door, he peered over the banisters
into the space below. It was like a deep vault that might conceal
in its shadows anything that was not good. It was not difficult to
fancy he saw an indistinct moving to-and-fro below him. Was that a
figure sitting on the stairs peering up obliquely at him out of
hideous eyes? Was that a sound of whispering and shuffling down
there in the dark halls and forsaken landings? Was it something
more than the inarticulate murmur of the night?
The wind made an effort overhead, singing over the skylight, and
the door behind him rattled and made him start. He turned to go
back to his room, and the draught closed the door slowly in his
face as if there were someone pressing against it from the other
side. When he pushed it open
