"I buckled on the plate armor, and found it extraordinarily
uncomfortable, and over all I drew on the chain mail. I know nothing
about armor, but from what I have learned since, I must have put on parts
of two suits. Anyway, I felt beastly, clamped and clumsy and unable to
move my arms and legs naturally. But I knew that the thing I was thinking
of doing called for some sort of protection for my body. Over the armor I
pulled on my dressing gown and shoved my revolver into one of the side
pockets--and my repeating flash-light into the other. My dark lantern I
carried in my hand.
"As soon as I was ready I went out into the passage and listened. I had
been some considerable time making my preparations and I found that now
the big hall and staircase were in darkness and all the house seemed
quiet. I stepped back and closed and locked my door. Then, very slowly
and silently I went downstairs to the hall and turned into the passage
that led to the Chapel.
"I reached the door and tried my key. It fitted perfectly and a moment
later I was in the Chapel, with the door locked behind me, and all about
me the utter dree silence of the place, with just the faint showings of
the outlines of the stained, leaded windows, making the darkness and
lonesomeness almost the more apparent.
"Now it would be silly to say I did not feel queer. I felt very queer
indeed. You just try, any of you, to imagine yourself standing there in
the dark silence and remembering not only the legend that was attached to
the place, but what had really happened to the old butler only a little
while gone, I can tell you, as I stood there, I could believe that
something invisible was coming toward me in the air of the Chapel.
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