The house, as far as I can recollect, consisted of four storeys and a basement. None of the rooms were very large; the wall-papers were hideous, and I remember thanking my stars that I was not called upon to live in such hopelessly inartistic quarters. McKaye asked me if I could detect anything peculiar in the atmosphere, but I could only detect extreme mustiness, and told him so. I fancied he seemed very fidgety and ill at ease; however, as he was a much older man than myself, and had some experience of the house, I felt perfectly safe with him. After we had been in all the rooms, we descended to the ground floor, and commenced our vigil on the staircase leading from the hall to the first landing.
“I think we stand more chance of seeing something here than anywhere else,” McKaye said; “and in the case of anything very alarming happening, we are close to the front door.”
“We both looked in the direction he indicated”
He spoke only half in fun and I observed that his fingers twitched a good deal and that his eyes were never at rest.
“Oughtn’t we to put out the candles?” I said. “Ghosts surely materialise much more readily in the dark.” But he would not hear of it. All his experiences, he said, had taken place in the light, and he believed only spoof ghosts at séances required the opposite conditions. Then he regaled me once more with all that had happened during his occupation of the house. He was still telling me, when there came a loud rat-rat at the door.
“That’s a policeman,” he said; “he must have seen our light.” He spoke truly, for, when we opened the door, a burly figure in helmet and cape stood on the step and flashed his dripping bull’s-eye in our faces. On hearing McKaye’s name the constable was instantly appeased, and, when we mentioned ghosts, he laughed long and loud. “Well, gentlemen,” he said, “you won’t never be alarmed by a happarition so long as you have that dog with you. I bet he would scare away any number of ghosts, and burglars, too. If I may be so bold as to ask, what breed do you call him? I’ve never seen anything quite like him before,” and he waved his lamp towards the stairs. We both looked in the direction he indicated, and there, half way up the stairs, with its face apparently turned towards us, was the black, shadowy outline of some shaggy creature, which to me looked not so much like a dog as a bear. It remained stationary for a moment or so, and then, retreating backwards, seemed to disappear into the wall.
“Well, gentlemen, good-night,” the policeman said, lowering his lamp, “it’s time I was going.” He turned on his heel, and was walking off, when McKaye called him back.