The Haunted Homestead Part 9

"Take the key out, John," said Mr. Howard. And John withdrew the key and took it to bed with him.

About fifteen minutes more pa.s.sed and then--"click!" flew the lock, open swung the door, and out of bed jumped John, in a state of mind between affright and rage.

"John, never mind! It is clear that the door will not remain closed; leave it open; to-morrow I will look at the lock and see what is amiss,"

said Mr. Howard.

And for the fourth time that night I heard my brother muttering like distant thunder, go back to his bed.

But I do not think that he slept that night, and I am sure that I did not.

In the morning I felt weary, and certain that if this mysterious visitation continued, I should go mad. As I was dressing before the toilet mirror, the reflection of my own face in the gla.s.s startled and terrified me, it looked so pale, wild and haggard, and not unlike the awful face of the midnight spectre. When Rachel and myself were dressed and ready to go down, I opened the door. And just at that moment my brother and Mr. Howard came out of their chamber and bade us "Good-morning."

"Were you at our door last night, Agnes?" John asked me.

"At your door, John? Certainly not."

"Wasn't you, though?"

"a.s.suredly not. What should have brought me there?"

"Well, somebody was, that's all!" said my brother, while Mr. Howard silently looked what he did not say.

We all went down together to the parlor, where a fine fire was burning, and Mathilde, in her fresh morning beauty, waited to welcome us.

And soon our host and hostess entered, and in a few moments the breakfast was announced, and we all adjourned to the table.

Breakfast was served long before the usual hour, that the gentlemen of our party might make an early start upon the fox hunt that Mr. Legare had arranged for that day.

While we were still at the table, Mrs. Legare bethought herself to hope that the gentlemen had rested well; when my brusque and thoughtless brother John said:

"No, indeed, my dear madam! We were 'fashed wi' a bogle' all night long."

"Sir?"

"He means, madam, that we could not by any means keep our door locked, and had finally to give up the attempt," explained Mr. Howard.

A deathly paleness overspread Mrs. Legare's face. I knew she regretted the question that she had been tempted to ask, and now she receded from the subject.

Mr. Legare, who had kept his eyes averted and turned a deaf ear to the disclosure, now adroitly changed the topic by speaking of the hunt.

The horses were neighing with impatience in the yard, and as soon as the gentlemen arose from the breakfast-table, they prepared themselves, mounted and rode off to their day's sport.

It proved a very successful chase, for they took the brush before twelve o'clock and returned with fine appet.i.tes to the excellent dinner set upon the table at two in the afternoon.

The evening was pa.s.sed in quiet hilarity, and we separated at a comparatively early hour.

But that night, reader! It pa.s.ses all my powers of description. I had always been in the habit of "saying" my prayers before retiring; but of late, since I had been habitually haunted, I had taken to praying devoutly before going to bed. I prayed with unusual earnestness this night, and then I retired to my couch. So wearied out in body was I that, despite of mental excitement, I soon fell asleep.

I do not know how long I had slept, probably several hours, for it was near day, when I was awakened by a strong light and a great noise.

I opened my eyes and collected my senses to find that both proceeded from the opposite bedroom, where Mr. Howard and John were up with a lighted candle, looking about for the mysterious and persevering intruder upon their slumbers. The light from their room streamed across the hall and through the open door into ours and fell upon the tall, dark-robed, stern-visaged haunter of my chamber, where she stood pointing her spectral finger to the spot upon the floor. A moment she stood thus, and then, as before, pa.s.sed slowly from the room and through the open door, that, without hands, closed behind her.

The silvery beams of the full moon poured through the two east windows, and in its light I now saw Rachel Noales sitting up straight, stark and still in her bed.

"Rachel! Rachel!" said I, "what is the matter?"

"Heaven and earth, Agnes, we are haunted!" she gasped, rather than spoke.

"Have you seen anything, Rachel?" I asked, now hoping that she had, for I felt it terrible to be alone in my spectral experiences.

"No, no, I have not seen anything! But that door! that door! that I am sure I fastened so carefully, was unlocked without a key, and opened without hands! I heard and saw it, for I was laying awake!"

"Let us hope that you were mistaken, Rachel."

"No, no, impossible! Oh, I would not sleep another night in this house for the wealth of the Indies!"

While we were talking, the fruitless search proceeded in, the opposite room, until at length it was given up and the friends retired.

Rachel left her bed and came into mine, where she lay and trembled.

Scarcely fifteen minutes of peace and silence pa.s.sed ere the lock of both doors flew back, and the doors swung open.

Rachel began screaming; the occupants of the opposite chamber started up, exclaiming in every variety of interjection. I arose and donned my double wrapper, and put my feet in slippers, to go and procure restoratives, for Rachel had fallen into spasms.

"For Heaven's sake, what is the matter, Agnes?" inquired my brother, who had put on his dressing-gown and come to the door.

"Oh, the Lord only knows!"

I had seized a bottle of cologne from the dressing-table and began to deluge the face and hands of Rachel, while my brother went and brought his candle and put it inside of our door.

"Do go and wake up Mrs. Legare, John; I can do nothing for Rachel; I never saw anybody in hysterics before, if this is hysterics!" said I, feeling both frightened at the condition and angry at the weakness of my patient.

But, even while I spoke, Mr. Howard, who during this time had been hastily dressing himself, went downstairs to the old house in search of a.s.sistance.

The family were speedily aroused. Mr. and Mrs. Legare hurried into the new house. The lady herself entered the chamber where Rachel, as often as her eyes opened in the haunted chamber, fell into new spasms.

"She will not recover until she is removed from this, Mrs. Legare," I said.

"Perhaps not; a.s.sist me to put her wrapper on, and we will take her down, and lay her on the parlor sofa," my hostess replied.

And after we had dressed our patient, we carried her down stairs, where the fire was still smoldering, and only needed replenishment.

When the wood was brought and thrown on, and the fire blazed up brightly, lighting and warming the whole room, and the shutters were unclosed, and the rising sun smiled in upon us all, I felt that the gladsome scene was enough to put to flight all the ghosts in Hades, and all the superst.i.tious terrors that ignorance is heir to. I almost began to doubt that I was haunted; and would have done so, but for the sombre and disturbed countenance of my host, who, as soon as Rachel Noales was soothed and put to sleep on the sofa, turned to us and inquired:

"Now, my friends, will you be so good as to explain the cause of your disturbance?"

"A mere trifle, sir," said my brother, brusquely; "the house is haunted."

"You, of course, do not speak seriously; you cannot credit such absurdities."