tapestry, bringing the affected section to the floor with his weight, and

exposing a damp, ancient wall of stone; patched here and there by the

restorers, and devoid of any trace of rodent prowlers.

Nigger-Man raced up and down the floor by this part of the wall, clawing

the fallen arras and seemingly trying at times to insert a paw between the

wall and the oaken floor. He found nothing, and after a time returned

wearily to his place across my feet. I had not moved, but I did not sleep

again that night.

In the morning I questioned all the servants, and found that none of them

had noticed anything unusual, save that the cook remembered the actions of

a cat which had rested on her windowsill. This cat had howled at some

unknown hour of the night, awaking the cook in time for her to see him

dart purposefully out of the open door down the stairs. I drowsed away the

noontime, and in the afternoon called again on Capt. Norrys, who became

exceedingly interested in what I told him. The odd incidents -- so slight

yet so curious -- appealed to his sense of the picturesque and elicited

from him a number of reminiscenses of local ghostly lore. We were

genuinely perplexed at the presence of rats, and Norrys lent me some traps

and Paris green, which I had the servants place in strategic localities

when I returned.

I retired early, being very sleepy, but was harassed by dreams of the most

horrible sort. I seemed to be looking down from an immense height upon a

twilit grotto, knee-deep with filth, where a white-bearded daemon