“The conventional ghost very often drags chains,” said Margaret, as she closed the door of her room.
And then she lay awake all night and listened for the conventional ghost that dragged a chain, but it seemed that the weight of the chain must have wearied him, for he was not heard again.
The mother had slept through it all, and next morning they gave her a vivid account of the night’s adventure.
“Perhaps it was someone in the house,” she said, in alarm. There were no ghosts within the bounds of possibility, so far as she was concerned, but burglars were very possible, indeed.
Then Margaret and David both laughed more than ever.
“What fun it would be,” said David, “for a burglar to get into this house and try to find something worth carrying away!”
So they went on to the next night, all three fully determined to spend the night in listening for the ghost, and running him to earth if possible.
But it was Margaret that heard the ghost, after all. She had been sleeping and was suddenly startled wide awake, and there, overhead, was the sound of the chain dragging; and just as she was on the point of springing out of bed to call her brother, the chain seemed to go out of the upper room. She lay still and listened, and in a moment she heard it again.
It was coming down the stairs.
There was no carpet on the stairs, and she could hear the chain drop from step to step, until it had come the whole way down. There it was, almost at the door of her room, and something that was strangely like fear kept her lying still, listening in horrified silence.