Show L J 4 i v 0 e e d e o Y Q 1 I will say this speaking as curate ly ty as a man may so long afterward that when first I spied the house V V It tt t put no desire in II me hut but b t just to toV give thanks V V For conceive my TOY case It was near midnight tri by this and ever since dusk duski t i had been tracking the naked moors afoot In the teeth of as vicious a anor nor wester as ever drenched a man to the skin and then blew the cold home to his marrow My clothes were sod sodden soddEn sodd den d n my coat tails flapped with the noise like pistol shots my boots squeaked as I went Overhead the Oc October October October tober moon was in her last quarter and might have been a slice sUc of or finger nail for tor all aU the light she afforded Two thirds of the time the wrack blotted her out altogether and J I with my stick BUck clipped cUpped tight under my armpit eyes puckered up and head bent like likeR likeL R L butting rams but a little aslant had hadt tn t keep my wits agog to distinguish the kho glimmer of the road from the black blackheath blackheath heath to right and left For three I 1 had met man nor mans man s dwelling and for all I know was wa desperately lost Indeed at the cross crossroads crosSroads crossroads roads two miles back there had been nothing for me but to choose the way that kept the wind on my face and It gnawed me like a dog V Mainly to allay the stinging of at my eyes I pulled Up tip at last turned right V about face leaned lean d back against the tl e blast with a a hand band on my hat and sur surveyed surveyed the blackness I had traversed It was at this instant that far away to the left a point of ot light caught my notice faint taint but steady and at once I felt sure It burned In the window of or ofa ora a n a house The house thought I is isa isa a 0 good mile mlle off beside the other road and the light Vj must have been an Inch over my hat brim for the last half hour for my head had been sloped that way This reflection that on so wide a moor I had come near missing the Information I wanted and perhaps a supper by one Inch ent a strong stron thrill down my back backI I cut straight across the heather to toward toward toV V ward the light risking and pit pitfalls pitfalls pitfalls falls Nay so heartening was the chance to hear a fellow creatures voice that I broke into a run skip skipping skipping skipping ping over the stunted gorse that crop cropped cropped ped up here and there and dreading every moment to see the light quenched Suppose it burns In th an up upper upper per window end and nd the family is going to bed as would be likely at this hour the apprehension kept my eyes fixed on the bright spot to the fre ftc frequent freQuent quent scandal of my legs that within five minutes were stuck full of gorse prickles S But the light did not go out and soon a flicker of moonlight gave me a glimpse of at the houses outline It proved ed to be a deal more imposing than I looked for forthe the outline in fact of ofa ofa ofa a tall tail square barrack with a cluster of at chimneys at either end like ears and a high wall wan topped by the roofs of some Borne outbuildings concealing the low lower er cr windows There was no gate In this wall and presently I guessed the reason I was approaching the place from behind and the light came from a back window on the first floor Tie The n of the he light also was uis it shone be Dc hind a blind bUnd and in shape resembled the stem of ot a wine glass broadening out at the foot an effect 1 b produced by the curtains within I came to a halt waiting for I T the next ray of moonlight At the same moment a rush of wind swept over the chimney stacks and ana on the wind there seemed to ride a human sigh On an this last point I may err The gust had passed some seconds before I caught myself this peculiar note Dote and trying to disengage It from the natural chords of ot the storm From the next gust It was absent And then my ny dismay the light faded from the th window I was half minded to call can out when It appeared again cain this time In two windows those next on the right to that where it had bad shone before Al most at once It Increased In brilliance as If the person who carried it from i the smaller room to the larger were lighting more s and now the il U II strOng str g enough to make fine tine gold threads of ot the rain that fell feU I within its and fling two shafts of warm war n yellow over the coping of or the black wall into the night During the minute or more that I stood watch Ing no shadow fell on either blind Between me and the wall ran a a ditch Into int the black obscurity of which the ithe e ground at my feet broke sharply away Setting my any back baek to the storm again I followed r the lip of this ditch around the walls angle Here was shelter and here the th ditch seemed to grow shallower Not wishing how ever eyer to mistake a bed of nettles or any such pitfall for solid soUd earth I kept pretty A wide wid a as asI I went wt on The house wL c JL anti and the tue wall as no no opening D Close be side the next angle grew a mass of thick gorse bushes and PUshing these I found myself sudden ly y on a high road with the wind tear tea ing at me as furiously furio Sly as ever But here herc was the front and I now perceived pu elved that the surrounding wall ad some way wy before the house so as to form a narrow curtilage So much of It too as faced the road had been whitewashed which made it an easy matter matt r to find the gate But I laid hands on Its latch as I h had bad d a sur stir prise V VA A line Ihie paving ing stones led from the I gate to the h heavy Vy porch and along the wet surface of these a streak of light fr frOm m the frost front door whIch stood ajar That a door should remain sIx Inches open on sUch a night was WIlS astonIshing enough until I entered the court and found was as still sUII as a room m owing to the tte nigh high wall waIl and doubtless the fhe gave additions protection But looking up and assurIng myself that all the rest of the facade tas as black as ink I wondered at the Inmates who could be thus property careless ot or their It was here that my professional in received the first jog Abating th 44 nf L u V stones I went u up to the IL uie door and pushed it softly It opened without I stepped into a hal haIl of modem build paved with red tiles lit with and a small right and left hanging lamp Jamp To the ground floor were doors Sno leading Tn to rooms Alon Along the vall by my shoulder ran a line of at whIch hUng pegs on halt half a dOzen hats and every one ot of clerical and full fulI in front ot of me a broad shape stair case cas ran up with a staring carpet the colors and pattern Brussels of which I cars recall as well as fast Under this staircase break breal stand full ull were set a of at Walking stIr stick k and a table Uttered littered with gloves bruSh brushes es a 3 hand d I ben bell a riding crop one or two do whistles and nd a bedro bedroom I 1 V candle with willi 1 p J l Ifft LUEZ I V 4 c I IV r 11 V I S q t tI tHeard J t I 1 I Heard a at Spilt Split Drop or Two Fall on the Carpet tinder box beside it This with one notable exception was all the furni furniture furnIture ture The exception which turned me cold Was the form of a yellow mastiff dog curled on a mat beneath the table The arch of or back bock was toward me and one forepaw lay layover over his nose In a natural posture of sleep I leant back on the th with my eyes tightly fixed on him and my thoughts flying back backwith backwith backwith with something of regret to the storm stormI I had come through But a mans habits are not easily de denied denied nied flied At the end of ot three minutes dog og had not moved and I was down on the doormat unlacing my soaked boots booth Slipping them off and taking them in my left hand I stood up and tried a astep astep step toward the stairs with my eyes alert for any movement of ot the mas tiff but he never stirred I was glad enough however on reaching the stairs to find them newly built and the th carpet thick Up I went with a glance at every step for the table which now hid the brutes form from me and never a creak did I wake out of that thaC staircase till I was almost at the first landing when my toe caught a 3 loose Joo stair rod and rattled It In a way that stopped my heart for a moment and then set It going in time I stood still with a hand on the rail raU My eyes were now on a level with the floor of the landing out of or which branched two passages one by my right hand the other to the t e left at the foot of the next flight so placed that I was gazing down the length of or it And almost at the end there fell a parallelogram of light across it from froman froman an open door man who has once felt it knows that there is only one kind of or silence that can be called dead This is only to be found In a great house at mid midnight midnIght midnight night I declare that for a few sec see seconds seconds after atter I rattled d the stair rod you OU might have cut the silence with a knife If the house held a clock it ticked in inaudibly Inaudibly inaudibly audibly Upon this silence at the end of a minute broke a light sound the clink clink of ot a decanter on the rim ri n of a awine awine awine wine glass It came from the room where the light was Now perhaps it was as that the verj ver thought of liquor put warmth into my cold coH bones It is certain that all of a sudden I straightened my back took the remaining stairs at two twe strides and walked down the passage as bold as brass without caring axing a jot for the noise I made In the doorway I halted The was long lined for the most part with books bound In what they call div divinity dIvinity calf and littered Uttered with papers like a barristers table on assize day da Before the fireplace where a few coals burned sulkily was drawn a leathern I I elbow chair and beside It on the cor corner corner ner ncr of a a writing table were set an un unlit unlit lit lii candle and a pile of manuscripts At Atthe the opposite end of the room a cur CUI curtained door led I guessed to the chamber that I had first seen V All this I took In with the tall of my eye while staring straight in Ia front where in the middle or of a a great greaf square of carpet between me and the windows was a table with a red cloth upon it On this cloth were a couple of wax candles lit In silver strands a tray and a decanter three parts full fuU of ot brandy And between me inc and the stood a man He stood sideways leaning a a little back as ns if to keep his shadow off oft the threshold and looked at me over his left shoulder a bald grave man maii slightly under the common commo Height 1 with witha a long clerical coat of preposterous fit at hanging loosely from his shoulders a white cravat black breeches and black stockings His feet were 1 ere loosely thrust into carpet slippers I jUdge his age at 50 or ther but his face rested in the shadow jid pd d T couT only note a coir nair of f eves very verv small and an alert twinkling above a large arge ex cx expanse expanse pause of cheek V He Re was as lifting a glass of at wine from the table at the moment when I r ap and it trembled now In his hf right hand I heard a spilt drop 01 or two fall on the carpet and this was all the evidence he showed or discern discomposure discomposure Setting the glass back he l felt In his breast pocket for a handkerchief failed to find one and nd rubbed his hands together to get the V liquor off his fingers You startled me he said In a mat tone turning his eyes upon me as he lifted his glass again and thid emptied it How did you find the way in 1 By the front door said I wonder Ing at his unconcern He nodded hl hI head slowly Ah jh yes yOs I forgot to lock it You came caine to steal I suppose If I I came because I lost my way ay Ive been traveling this Godforsaken moor since dusk With your boots in your hand he hee h put In inV V quietly I took them off out of respect to the yellow dog you keep He lies In a very natural attitude eh oh 1 You dont tell teU me lie be was w s stuffed The old mans eyes beamed pity You are Indifferently sharp sh V rp my dear di d lt sir for a housebreaker Come in Se down those convicting boots and chin ddn drip pools p of Water vater in th the doorway o all aU places if I must entertain a bur gl I 1 prefer Dr fer him U Ue l V B e walked to i fire fir i picked pl V ked up tip poker and knocked 1 the coals Into a ablaze ablaze ablaze blaze This done he turned roun round on me with the poker still in his hand pando The serenest gravity sat on his large pale features Why have I done this he asked III I suppose to get possession of the poker Quite right May I inquire into your next move 1 Why said I feeling In my tail pocket HI I carry a pistol pisto Which I suppose to be damp By no means I carry it as you see in an oilcloth case He stopped and laid the carefully c in the fender That is a a stronger card than I pos possess possess possess sess I might urge that by pulling the th trigger you would certainly alarm the house and the neighborhood and put a halter round your neck I say I might urge this and assume you to be an intelligent auditor But it strikes me meas meas meas as safer to assume you capable of using a pistol with effect at three paces With what might happen sub subsequently subsequently I will not pretend to be con concerned concerned concerned It is sufficient that I dislike the notion of being perforated The fate of your neck He waved a hand Well I have known you for just five minutes and feel reef but moderate mo e ate interest in your neck As for the Inmates of this house it will refresh you to hear henr that there are none 1 i have lived here two years with a but butler butler butler ler and a female cook co k both of or whom I dismissed yesterday at a moments notice for conduct I will not hock hoek your ears by explicitly naming Suffice it to say I carried them oft to mv miles away them and dis dismissed dismissed missed them in the vestry vesti without characters I w wish h you had known the butler but excuse m me Information InfOrmation Information mation I have supplied you tou ought to find no difficulty in fixing the price you will take to clear out of my house Sir I answered HI I have held a pis pistol pistol tol tel at one or two heads in my time but never at one stuffed with a nobler dis discretion discretion discretion Your chivalry does not in indeed indeed indeed deed disarm me but prompts me to desire more of your acquaintance I have found a gentleman and must sup with him before I make terms The address seemed to please him He shuffled across the room to a side sideboard sideboard sideboard board and produced a plate of biscuit another of almonds and dried P Pa a glass and two decanters Sherry and Maderia he aid Id There Is also a cold pie In the larder If It you care for it itA ItA ItA A biscuit will serve serves t i replied To tell teU the th truth Im z for tor the bucket than the m ger as the grooms say and by your leave the brandy you were testing just now is more r re to my mind than wine There is no water handy There was plenty out of doors to last me with this bottle V VI I pulled over my chair and laid my pistol on the table and held out the glass for him to fill Having done so he helped himself to a glass and a chair chait and sat down facing me meI meI ul I was talking just now of my late butler he began with a sip at t his brandy Has It struck you that when confronted with moral delinquency I Iam Iam Iam am likely to let tet my indignation on get the better of nf mp me Not at at all I 1 answered heartily re refilling refilling refilling filling my glass It appeared that another reply would have pleased him better Hm I was hoping hOJ that perhaps I had visited his offense too strongly I As a clergyman you see I was bound to be severe but upon my word ord sir since he went I have h ve felt like a man who has 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