Within That Room! Read Online Free PDF

persuasion. For burning of the skin, for obliteration of the eyes, for—”
    â€œAll right, all right,” Vera interrupted. “You needn’t bother. What are the hooks for?”
    She looked above her and the ghost of a sadistic smile crossed Mrs. Falworth’s face.
    â€œFor hanging purposes purely, Miss. I have little doubt that victims were suspended up there in all manner of positions in the old days. Medieval, of course, but I am sure it must have been most effective.”
    â€œMust have been,” Vera agreed. She looked around quickly for something to change the subject—and found it. “Is that another cellar there?” she asked. “That door?”
    â€œThat is an ancient wine cellar, miss—empty of wine, I regret to say. We use it now for the storage of disused articles.”
    Vera’s blue eyes moved again around the chasing shadows. The gloom, the silence, the spitting of the waxed torch: they were horrible things. Medieval, slinking unbidden into her soul. “Let’s get back upstairs!” she said abruptly.
    So they left the basement by the stone steps that led out at the side of the main staircase in the hall. From here the tour continued, covering Uncle Cyrus’ library—remarkable for its many showcases containing dried plants and insects—the huge drawing-room; then up the stairs to each of the twelve bedrooms. Of them all, fully furnished, only two were in use—Vera’s own, and the Falworths’, two rooms removed from her. But there was yet one other room at the far end of the corridor, the edges of the door taped, and heavy screws driven through the door into the frame.
    â€œWhat’s in here?” Vera asked curiously, stopping beside it.
    â€œThat, miss, is the room,” the housekeeper answered, holding the torch high over their heads.
    â€œWhere the ghost walks, you mean?”
    â€œWithin that room is a core of evil manifestation—and I would warn you never to enter it if you value your life and reason.”
    Vera’s firm little chin began to set. She turned and looked at the housekeeper coldly.
    â€œLook here, Mrs. Falworth, do you suggest that I own this house and yet have one room in it forever locked—always wondering what is inside it? I’m not that kind of a girl. It has got to be opened tomorrow. I intend to put an end to this phantom nonsense once and for all.”
    The housekeeper stood erect, forbidding. “I do not wish to seem disrespectful, miss, but I must refuse to obey that order. I will not under any circumstances open that door!”
    â€œThen your husband must.”
    â€œI am sorry, but I shall not permit him to.”
    A glint came in Vera’s eyes. She said: “Maybe you have forgotten that it is I who give the orders here? You won’t permit him, indeed! If I say this door is to be opened, it will be opened!”
    Mrs. Falworth relaxed her frozen attitude suddenly. She caught hold of Vera’s arm.
    â€œMiss Grantham, won’t you please see that I am trying to save you from an unimaginable disaster? I tell you—I swear to you—that if you go in that room your senses, your reason, will be blasted right out of you!”
    Vera stared at her.
    â€œBut how do you know that such a horrible thing will happen?”
    â€œBecause it has happened before! Your uncle went into this room last year to lay the ghost, and he emerged just on the borderline of insanity! For many months he was raving and it took every bit of my nursing skill and Dr. Gillingham’s medical knowledge—he is the village practitioner—to restore his health.
    â€œEven then, we were not very successful, for his dreadful experience undoubtedly hastened his end. This room does not contain just a commonplace spirit or apparition—in fact, the ghost is only visible once a year—but an overwhelming sense of evil even though the room is empty. That evil can