“Two female figures, the girl said,” corrected Mrs. Winter.
“Wonderful, most wonderful!” exclaimed Foxwell, smiling. “And whence comes this news?”
“The keeper’s daughter has just told us,” said Rashleigh. “Her sweetheart, it appears, was coming last night from the village to see her, and took a short way through the fields into the park. ’Twas he saw the three figures in the garden; and one of them, it seems, was like that seen by the scullery-maid the other evening.”
“The scullery-maid?” said Foxwell. “I remember: I promised to question her, but something put it out of my mind. Well, ’tis not too late: we’ll catechize her now—and the keeper’s daughter, too.”
But the keeper’s daughter had gone home to the lodge, and the examination was confined to the kitchen girl, who came to the summons as much frightened as if she were brought, not to tell of a ghost, but to face one. Foxwell and his visitors seated themselves in the hall to hear her story, the other servants being excluded. By patient interrogation, Foxwell contrived to elicit an account hardly more circumstantial than Lady Strange had previously given him. The girl had pursued the cat with the intention of employing it against the mice in the dormitory of the maids. Drawn thus toward the garden, she had perceived the motionless cloaked figure, which had stared at her in a strange, death-like manner. It wore a sword, and she thought that in life “the gentleman might have been a king’s officer,” though she could not say what made her think so.
The word “officer” seemed to touch some association in Foxwell’s mind. His hand went to the pocket containing the paper Filson had given him, and he showed a faint increase of interest in the few answers the girl had yet to make. When he had dismissed her, he turned smilingly to his guests:
“Well, we must avail ourselves of this ghost while it is in the humour of haunting us. Kind fortune seems to have sent it for your entertainment. What say you to a ghost-hunt?”
“How are ghosts usually hunted?” asked Rashleigh; “with hounds? beagles? terriers?”
“No, that would not do,” said Foxwell, thoughtfully. “As we know where it appears—for it has been seen twice in the sunken garden, according to the evidence—we had best set a trap for it. What do you think, ladies? It may help enliven the night for us.”
“I should dearly love to see a ghost,” said Lady Strange; “but what manner of trap would you use? Sure such an insubstantial thing can’t be held by any machine of wood and iron.”