Within That Room! by John Russell Fearn Page B

incredulity. “It’s not...not just a legend, after all! Look, dare we try again, just long enough to study it!”
    Dick opened the door once more and they peered in on the apparition for the second time, then suddenly they began to feel the awful sensations of the previous evening. Dick slammed the door immediately, his face damp and sickly white. Firmly he drove home the imprisoning screw.
    â€œThat’s enough of that,” he muttered. “The ghost’s there—but so is that awful influence. We’ve seen enough. Unless—” His eyes gleamed abruptly. “Come with me!” he said.
    Vera didn’t ask questions. She followed him at top speed as he raced down the staircase and into the hall. At the door leading into the basement he stopped and pulled at it. It was locked.
    â€œPenny to a pound, if my theory is right, that the Dragon and her husband are down here,” he panted, as Vera came hurrying up to him. “Haven’t you got a duplicate key?”
    â€œSorry, I haven’t.”
    â€œAll right—we’ll wait.”
    Dick stood by the door, grim-faced, then he looked around and gave a start as Mrs. Falworth appeared from the kitchen regions with vague surprise on her features.
    â€œOh, it is you, sir! I thought I heard somebody knocking on the front door.”
    Dick looked at her blankly, then recovered himself.
    â€œI was rattling this basement door,” he explained. “Have you been down there at all this evening, Mrs. Falworth?”
    â€œWhy should I?” Her voice was flat and hard.
    â€œThat doesn’t answer the question. Have you or not?”
    â€œMost certainly not!”
    â€œWhat about your husband?”
    â€œHe is tidying up the coke in one of the outhouses if you wish to speak to him.”
    â€œOh!” Dick rubbed his chin and scowled. Mrs. Falworth fixed him with her abysmal eyes for a while, then she glanced at Vera.
    â€œHave you seen the phantom, Miss?” she inquired, her tone so offhand she might have been referring to a visitor.
    â€œYes, not ten minutes ago, and we both felt that aura of evil. But I still believe that there has got to be an explanation.”
    â€œIf you persist,” the housekeeper shrugged. “And now, if you do not require me any further—”
    Dick waved a dismissal impatiently and the woman turned and glided back towards her own domain. Vera gave Dick a puzzled look.
    â€œYou’re making Mrs. Falworth decidedly suspicious. If she isn’t up to anything, I’m afraid she’ll be resenting our attitude before very long.”
    â€œShe’s up to something all right!” There was no uncertainty in Dick’s statement. “The only trouble is that I’m a bit stumped at the moment.”
    â€œWhy did you expect to find Mrs. Falworth and her husband in the cellar?”
    Dick glanced around, then motioned across to the drawing room. Once they were within it he closed the door and began to speak in a lowered voice.
    â€œI’ve been having plenty of hard thinking about this horror business, as you know—and it seems pretty obvious to me that if it isn’t genuine terror-manifestation then it is a gas.”
    â€œA gas!” Vera looked at him incredulously.
    â€œWhat else can it be?” he insisted. “It’s invisible, impalpable—and we know that there are gases which can cause unconsciousness, which can deaden the nerve centers to kill severe pain, which can maim and destroy—so why not one which acts on the nerves? That would cause those awful sensations? The brain becomes deranged because of it.”
    â€œWell, it sounds a bit wild, but granting you are right, how does it ever get into the room with nobody but ourselves present?”
    â€œThat,” Dick said, “is the point! There is only one way—the fireplace! Is it coincidence that the back of it is knocked out so that we can see the