We heard doors opening and hurried calls, and something about pistols, impelling Griff to call out, 'It's nothing, papa; but there are some drunken rascals in the garden.'

A light had come by this time, and we were detected. There was a general sally upon the enemy in the garden before any one thought of me, except a 'You here!' when they nearly fell over me. And there I was left sitting on the stair, helpless without my crutches, till in a few minutes all returned declaring there was nothing--no signs of anything; and then as Clarence ran up to me with my crutches my father demanded the meaning of my being there at that time of night.

'Well, sir,' said Griff, 'it is only that we have been sitting up to investigate the ghost.'

'Ghost! Arrant stuff and nonsense! What induced you to be dragging Edward about in this dangerous way?'

'I wished it,' said I.

'You are all mad together, I think. I won't have the house disturbed for this ridiculous folly. I shall look into it to- morrow!'

CHAPTER XV--RATIONAL THEORIES

'These are the reasons, they are natural.'

Julius Caesar.

If anything could have made our adventure more unpleasant to Mr. and Mrs. Winslow, it would have been the presence of guests. However, inquiry was suppressed at breakfast, in deference to the signs my mother made to enjoin silence before the children, all unaware that Emily was nearly frantic with suppressed curiosity, and Martyn knew more about the popular version of the legend than any of us.

Clarence looked wan and heavy-eyed. His head was aching from a bump against the edge of a step, and his cold was much worse; no wonder, said my mother; but she was always softened by any ailment, and feared that the phantoms were the effect of coming illness. I have always thought that if Clarence could have come home from his court- martial with a brain fever he would have earned immediate forgiveness; but unluckily for him, he was a very healthy person.

All three of us were summoned to the tribunal in the study, where my father and my mother sat in judgment on what they termed 'this preposterous business.' In our morning senses our impressions were much more vague than at midnight, and we betrayed some confusion; but Griff and I had a strong instinct of sheltering Clarence, and we stoutly declared the noises to be beyond the capacities of wind, rats, or cats; that the light was visible and inexplicable; and that though we had seen nothing else, we could not doubt that Clarence did.

'Thought he did,' corrected my father.

'Without discussing the word,' said Griff, 'I mean that the effect on his senses was the same as the actual sight. You could not look at him without being certain.'

'Exactly so,' returned my mother. 'I wish Dr. Fellowes were near.'