Part 12 (1/2)
”You have a bold heart, I hope,” said the old woman, ”for those who spend a night in this house require one.”
”I am not much given to be afraid,” answered Jack, laughing; ”but what makes you say that?”
”Why, for a good reason: because the old tower is haunted. We didn't like it when we first came here, but we've got accustomed to it. There was an old family lived here in the time of Charles, the king whose head was cut off, when all the men of the family lost their lives in the Civil Wars, and the ladies died of broken hearts, or something of that sort. At all events, the old tower was left deserted, and for many years no one came to live in it. At length, one family came to try and see how it would suit them, but they very soon gave up; and then another and another rented the farm, and tried to stop in the tower, but they could not stand the sights they saw, or the sounds they heard, and threw it up, one after the other. At last my good man and I came here. We were told before what we were to expect, and so we made up our minds for the worst. Well, the very first night we came, as we were sitting here at supper, just as we may be now, we heard the ghosts of the family to whom the tower had belonged all talking away below us. Sometimes it was an old man's voice, then a young girl's, and then the voice of a strong man of middle age, and then a youth, maybe, like yourself, and young children. It was curious to hear them go on in that way. We could not make out what they said exactly, but there was a change in the tone of their voices, just as clearly as if they had been in the room with us.
As to sights, I cannot say that we saw any thing; and I'm not ashamed to confess it, neither my good man nor I felt inclined to go into the chamber below, to have a look at the ghosts. They went on talking for some hours, till we heard them scuffling off to bed, so it seemed, and we therefore followed their example. This went on, as I say, night after night. I need not tell you what we saw when we did see any thing, but I will just advise you to be prepared, should you hear any strange noises; and provided you don't go and interfere with the ghosts, depend upon it they will let you alone.”
”Thank you,” answered Jack, ”for the advice. I never yet have met a ghost, though maybe I shall some day, and if I do I intend to treat it with all due respect.”
”You had better treat the ghosts here in that way,” observed Burdale, with a peculiar glance at Jack; ”I have heard of them before, and I am sure they would not like any one to interfere with them.”
”Oh, yes,” said the old woman, ”we have ghosts inside the house and out of it too. Did you mark that big old oak, as you rode up to the door?
They say there's a ghost lives inside it, of some man who was murdered under its branches years gone by. How he do groan at night sometimes!
It has been the same ever since we came here. At first I could not sleep for listening to him, and thinking what a pain he was in: just like the pains of souls in purgatory.” This remark made Jack suspect that his hosts were Romanists.
He could hear very little more about the ghost in the old oak, but he promised next morning to examine the tree, and ascertain in which part of it the spirit resided.
”You had better let he alone,” observed the old man; ”these sort of gentry don't like anybody to come and pry after them. That's what I think; and so I have let them alone, and he has never come to do me any harm.”
The guide and the two old people talked on for a considerable time; but gradually to Jack's ears their voices grew less and less distinct, till his head dropped on the table, and he fell fast asleep. How long he had been asleep he could not tell, but when he awoke he found himself stretched on a pile of straw in a corner of the great hall, so it appeared to him, but no light was burning, and it was with difficulty he could distinguish objects by means of the streaks of moonlight which came through the c.h.i.n.ks of the shutters. He had not been many minutes awake before he heard voices. They were certainly not those of the old people or of Burdale, and they appeared to come from below him. He listened attentively. He had no doubt that they were human voices he heard; in earnest conversation, too. Now high, now low; now the voice was that of a strong, hale man; now that of one shaking with age; now of a bold, eager youth; now several seemed to be speaking together. The tales he had heard that night recurred to his mind. Could it be possible that these were the spirits of the departed owners of the Hagg?
Again he listened, to a.s.sure himself that he had not been misled by fancy. He sat up and rubbed his eyes--still the voices reached his ears. He was const.i.tutionally brave.
”I will not be mocked by real ghosts or pretended spirits,” he said to himself, springing to his feet.
He felt for his weapons. His pistols were in his belt and his knife was by his side. He looked about him, and ascertained the position of the doors in the room.
”I can find my way to the top of the stairs which I saw led down into the vaults below,” he said to himself, ”and I can easily grope my way down-stairs, and find out what these ghosts really are.”
To think was to act with him. The moonlight enabled him to find his way with greater ease even than he had expected, and on reaching the top of the stairs he was more sure than ever that people were talking below.
Holding a pistol in one hand, he felt his way with the other, descending the stone steps, careful to make his footing sure before he advanced again. He thus, without breaking his neck, reached the bottom, when not only did he hear the voices more distinctly and catch many of the words which were spoken, but he saw a bright light s.h.i.+ning through a c.h.i.n.k of a door before him. He approached the door in the hope of being able to see through the c.h.i.n.k, but this he found was impossible. As, however, he was pressing against the door, it flew open, and what was his amazement to see between two and three dozen people, either sitting or standing round a long table, with many others, strongly armed, scattered about the vault! The noise made by the door as it flew open was heard by the a.s.sembly, and several men sprang forward and seized him ere he could make his retreat.
”An eavesdropper!” exclaimed one.
”We are betrayed!” cried another.
”His mouth must be stopped,” muttered a third.
”It would be safer to kill him at once,” growled another.
”What has brought you here?” asked a fine, dignified looking man, in a handsome costume of somewhat antique fas.h.i.+on.
”I am a traveller, and put up here on my way to the fens,” answered Jack. ”I do not wish to injure any one, but hearing voices, and having been told that the house was haunted, I came to see whence they could proceed, not believing that ghosts could make such a racket as disturbed my rest.”
”The lad is no spy, or he would not speak as frankly as he does,”
observed the gentleman.
”I can answer for his honesty,” said another person, whom Jack had not hitherto noticed, rising from his seat and advancing towards him. ”He is ready to serve in a right cause and be of use to his country.”
Jack on looking towards the speaker discovered that he was no other than Mr Harwood.