"
"My dear fellow," I answered, "the affair is new to you, but it is not
new to me. I would rather sleep alone in the haunted house, than in a
mansion filled from basement to garret, with the unsolved mystery of
this place haunting me."
"I wish you had never heard of, nor seen, nor come near it," he
exclaimed, bitterly; "but, however, let matters turn out as they will, I
mean to stick to you, Patterson. There's my hand on it."
And he gave me his hand, which was cold as ice--cold as that of one
dead.
"I am going to have some punch, Ned," I remarked. "That is, if you will
stop and have some."
"All right," he answered. "Something 'hot and strong' will hurt neither
of us, but you ought to have yours in bed. May I give it to you there?"
"Nonsense!" I exclaimed, and we drew our chairs close to the fire, and,
under the influence of a decoction which Ned insisted upon making
himself, and at making which, indeed, he was much more of an adept than
I, we talked valiantly about ghosts and their doings, and about how our
credit and happiness were bound up in finding out the reason why the
Uninhabited House was haunted.
"Depend upon it, Hal," said Munro, putting on his coat and hat,
preparatory to taking his departure, "depend upon it that unfortunate
Robert Elmsdale must have been badly cheated by some one, and sorely
exercised in spirit, before he blew out his brains.
Pages:
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178