“Ye maun stay, ye maun stay. We can’t get on wi’out ye. Do ye want us to starve?”
And a chorus of evidently assenting murmurs followed. The voices dropped again, and again the listening girl’s attention relaxed, as sleep got the better of her senses. But suddenly she was aroused again, this time by sounds which came from behind the head of the bed, and were so plain that they seemed to be in the very room. Sounds as of a man’s footsteps coming up a stone staircase, coming up unsteadily, with many pauses. Sounds, too, as of heavy weights being dragged up, and of suppressed laughter and jeers.
“Eh, but tha’s gotten aboot as much as tha’ can carry, eh, Crispin?” said one voice.
“Tha’ couldn’t climb oop a mast to-night, Crispin,” said another, during the laughter which succeeded the first speech.
The voice of the man who was on the stairs answered, in low and husky tones. Although he was the nearest to her, Freda could not distinguish what he said, except the word “hush.” Then she heard a mumbling sound, like the drawing back of a sliding door, and then the dragging of some heavy weight over the boards, and the opening of a window. Presently the man came back, went down the stone steps, and re-ascended in the same manner as before. This happened three or four times, until the voices below died gradually away, and the sounds ceased. Not until long after all was quiet did Freda fall asleep again, and for the remainder of the night her rest was troubled by all sorts of wild dreams.
Next morning, as a consequence of her broken night’s rest, she did not wake until the housekeeper knocked loudly at the door. Springing up with a sudden rush of confused memories through her brain, Freda ran to the door, drew back the bolt, and pulled Mrs. Bean into the room.
“Oh,” she cried, “this is a dreadful house; how can you stay in it? It is haunted, or——”
Mrs. Bean interrupted her with a peculiar expression on her face.
“Didn’t I tell you to take no notice of anything you heard?” she asked quietly. “What does it matter to you what goes on outside your door, while you’re locked safe inside?”
“But I want to know——” began Freda.