“Well, come on, come on,” he said, testily. “Put me somewheres and do it quick. Long's I've GOT to sleep in this house I might's well be doin' it. Where is this room you're talkin' about? Let's see it.”
Emily took the lamp and led the way up the back stairs. Solomon followed her and Thankful brought up the rear. She felt a curious hesitancy in putting even her disagreeable relative in that room on this night. Around the gables and upon the roof the storm whined and roared as it had the night when she first explored that upper floor. And she remembered, now, that it had stormed, though not as hard, the night when Miss Timpson received her “warning.” If there were such things as ghosts, and if the little back bedroom WAS haunted, a night like this was the time for spectral visitations. She had half a mind to give Mr. Cobb another room.
But, before she could decide what to do, before the struggle between her common-sense and what she knew were silly forebodings was at an end, the question was decided for her. Solomon had entered the large room and expressed his approval of it.
“This'll do first rate,” he said. “Why didn't you want to put me in here? Suppose you thought 'twas too good for me, eh? Well, it might be for some folks, but not for me. What's that, a closet?”
He was pointing to the closed door of the little room, the one which Miss Timpson had intended using as a study. Thankful had, after her last night of fruitless spook hunting, closed the door and locked it.
“What's this door locked for?” asked Mr. Cobb, who had walked over and was trying the knob.
“Oh, nothing; it's just another empty room, that's all. There's nothin' in it.”
“Humph! Is that so? What do you lock up a room with nothin' in it for?” He turned the key and flung the door open. “Ugh!” he grunted, in evident disappointment. “'Tis empty, ain't it? Well, good night.”
Emily, whose face expressed a decided opinion concerning the visitor, walked out into the hall. Thankful remained.
“Solomon,” she said, in a whisper, “tell me. Have you made up your mind about that mortgage?”