"When he had gone, I ran back again, and saw the men passing, one after
another, through an opening in the stairs, formed by one of the marble
steps being raised. When the last man had vanished, the slab that made
the step was shut down, and there was not a sign of the secret door. It
was the seventh step from the bottom, as I took care to count: and a
splendid idea; for it was so solid that it did not ring hollow, even to a
fairly heavy hammer, as I found later. "There is little more to tell. I got out of the house as quickly and
quietly as possible, and back to the inn. The police came without any
coaxing, when they knew the 'ghosts' were normal flesh and blood. We
entered the park and the Manor in the same way that I had done. Yet, when
we tried to open the step, we failed, and had finally to smash it. This
must have warned the haunters; for when we descended to a secret room
which we found at the end of a long and narrow passage in the thickness
of the walls, we found no one. "The police were horribly disgusted, as you can imagine; but for my
part, I did not care either way. I had 'laid the ghost,' as you might
say, and that was what I set out to do. I was not particularly afraid of
being laughed at by the others; for they had all been thoroughly 'taken
in'; and in the end, I had scored, without their help. "We searched right through the secret ways, and found that there was an
exit, at the end of a long tunnel, which opened in the side of a well,
out in the grounds. The ceiling of the hall was hollow, and reached by a
little secret stairway inside of the big staircase. The 'blood-drip' was
merely colored water, dropped through the minute crevices of the
ornamented ceiling. How the candles and the fire were put out, I do not
know; for the haunters certainly did not act quite up to tradition, which
held that the lights were put out by the 'blood-drip.' Perhaps it was too
difficult to direct the fluid, without positively squirting it, which
might have given the whole thing away. The candles and the fire may
possibly have been extinguished by the agency of carbonic acid gas; but
how suspended, I have no idea. "The secret hiding paces were, of course, ancient. There was also, did I
tell you? a bell which they had rigged up to ring, when anyone entered
the gates at the end of the drive. If I had not climbed the wall, I
should have found nothing for my pains; for the bell would have warned
them had I gone in through the gateway." "What was on the negative?" I asked, with much curiosity. "A picture of the fine wire with which they were grappling for the hook
that held the entrance door open. They were doing it from one of the
crevices in the ceiling. They had evidently made no preparations for
lifting the hook. I suppose they never thought that anyone would make
use of it, and so they had to improvise a grapple. The wire was too fine
to be seen by the amount of light we had in the hall; but the flashlight
'picked it out.' Do you see? "The opening of the inner doors was managed by wires, as you will have
guessed, which they unshipped after use, or else I should soon have found
them, when I made my search. "I think I have now explained everything. The hound was killed, of
course, by the men direct. You see, they made the place as dark as
possible, first. Of course, if I had managed to take a flashlight just at
that instant, the whole secret of the haunting would have been exposed. But Fate just ordered it the other way." "And the tramps?" I asked. "Oh, you mean the two tramps who were found dead in the Manor," said
Carnacki. "Well, of course it is impossible to be sure, one way or the
other. Perhaps they happened to find out something, and were given a
hypodermic. Or it is just as probable that they had come to the time of
their dying, and just died naturally. It is conceivable that a great many
tramps had slept in the old house, at one time or another." Carnacki stood up, and knocked out his pipe. We rose also, and went for
our coats and hats. "Out you go!" said Carnacki, genially, using the recognized formula. And
we went out on to the Embankment, and presently through the darkness to
our various homes. No. 3--THE WHISTLING ROOM


Carnacki shook a friendly fist at me as I entered, late. Then he opened
the door into the dining room, and ushered the four of us--Jessop,
Arkright, Taylor and myself--in to dinner. We dined well, as usual, and, equally as usual, Carnacki was pretty
silent during the meal. At the end, we took our wine and cigars to our
usual positions, and Carnacki--having got himself comfortable in his big
chair--began without any preliminary:--

"I have just got back from Ireland, again," he said. "And I thought you
chaps would be interested to hear my news. Besides, I fancy I shall see
the thing clearer, after I have told it all out straight. I must tell you
this, though, at the beginning--up to the present moment, I have been
utterly and completely 'stumped.' I have tumbled upon one of the most
peculiar cases of 'haunting'--or devilment of some sort--that I have come
against. Now listen. "I have been spending the last few weeks at Iastrae Castle, about twenty
miles northeast of Galway. I got a letter about a month ago from a Mr.
Sid K. Tassoc, who it seemed had bought the place lately, and moved in,
only to find that he had bought a very peculiar piece of property. "When I got there, he met me at the station, driving a jaunting car, and
drove me up to the castle, which, by the way, he called a 'house shanty.' I found that he was 'pigging it' there with his boy brother and another
American, who seemed to be half-servant and half-companion. It seems that
all the servants had left the place, in a body, as you might say, and now
they were managing among themselves, assisted by some day-help. "The three of them got together a scratch feed, and Tassoc told me all
about the trouble whilst we were at table. It is most extraordinary, and
different from anything that I have had to do with; though that Buzzing
Case was very queer, too. "Tassoc began right in the middle of his story. 'We've got a room in this
shanty,' he said, 'which has got a most infernal whistling in it; sort of
haunting it. The thing starts any time; you never know when, and it goes
on until it frightens you. All the servants have gone, as you know. It's
not ordinary whistling, and it isn't the wind. Wait till you hear it.' "'We're all carrying guns,' said the boy; and slapped his coat pocket. "'As bad as that?' I said; and the older boy nodded. 'It may be soft,' he
replied; 'but wait till you've heard it. Sometimes I think it's some
infernal thing, and the next moment, I'm just as sure that someone's
playing a trick on me.' "'Why?' I asked. 'What is to be gained?' "'You mean,' he said, 'that people usually have some good reason for
playing tricks as elaborate as this. Well, I'll tell you. There's a lady
in this province, by the name of Miss Donnehue, who's going to be my
wife, this day two months.