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Page 35
"No; and that is what so engages my attention. These experiences
differ so much in their character. Do you happen to know the exact
nature of each? I have a theory which I long to substantiate. May
I trust you with it?"
"You certainly may, Miss. No one has thought over this matter more
earnestly than I have. Not because of any superstitious tendency
on my part; rather from the lack of it. I don't believe in
spirits. I don't believe in supernatural agencies of any kind; yet
strange things do happen in that house, things which we find it
hard to explain."
"Mrs. Packard's experience was this. She believes herself to have
encountered in the library the specter of a man; a specter with a
gaze so terrifying that it impressed itself upon her as an omen of
death, or some other dire disaster. What have your other tenants
seen?"
"Shadows mostly; but not always. Sometimes the outline of an arm
projecting out of darkness; sometimes, the trace of steps on the
hall floors, or the discovery in the morning of an open door which
had been carefully closed at bedtime. Once it was the trailing of
ghostly fingers across the sleeper's face, and once a succession of
groans rising from the lower halls and drawing the whole family
from their beds, to find no one but themselves within the whole
four walls. A clearly outlined phantom has been scarce. But Mrs.
Packard has seen one, you say."
"Thinks she has seen one," I corrected. "Mayor Packard and myself
both look upon the occurrence as a wholly imaginary one, caused by
her secret brooding over the very manifestations you mention. If
she could be convinced that these manifestations had a physical
origin, she would immediately question the reality of the specter
she now believes herself to have seen. To bring her to this point
I am ready to exert myself to the utmost. Are you willing to do
the same? If so, I can assure you of Mayor Packard's
appreciation."
"How? What? You believe the whole thing a fraud? That all these
tenants coming from various quarters manufactured all these stories
and submitted to endless inconvenience to perpetuate a senseless
lie?"
"No, I don't think that. The tenants were honest enough, but who
owned the house before Mr. Searles?" I was resolved to give no hint
of the information imparted to me by Mrs. Packard.
"The Misses Quinlan, the two maiden ladies who live next door to
Mayor Packard."
"I don't know them," said I truthfully.
"Very worthy women," Mr. Robinson assured me. "They are as much
disturbed and as completely puzzled as the rest of us over the
mysterious visitations which have lessened the value of their
former property. They have asked me more than once for an
explanation of its marked unpopularity. I felt foolish to say
ghosts, but finally I found myself forced to do so, much to my
lasting regret."
"How? Why?" I asked, with all the force of a very rapidly
increasing curiosity.
"Because its effect upon them has been so disastrous. They were
women of intelligence previous to this, one of them quite markedly
so, but from that day they have given evidence of mental weakness
which can only be attributed to their continual brooding over this
mysterious topic. The house, whose peculiarities we are now
discussing, was once their family homestead, and they shrink from
the reproach of its unfortunate reputation. What! you don't think
so?" he impetuously asked, moved, perhaps, by my suggestive
silence. "You are suspicious of these two poor old women? What
reason have you for that, Miss Saunders? What motive could they
have for depreciating the value of what was once their own
property?"
So he knew nothing of the lost bonds! Mrs. Packard had made no
mistake when she assured me of the secrecy with which they had
endured their misfortune. It gave me great relief; I could work
more safely with this secret unshared. But the situation called
for dissimulation. It was with anything but real openness that I
declared:
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