Chapter 5: Footprints without Feet

The arrival of a stranger with an uncommon appearance at an inn in mid-winter was an unusual event in itself. Mrs Hall tried to be friendly with Griffin, but he gave her a cold response. He rebuffed her by saying that he was not interested in talking to anyone and had come there for solitude, and did not wish to be disturbed in his work. Considering all these reasons, Mrs Hall found the scientist to be an eccentric person.

In the early hours of one morning, the clergyman and his wife woke up owing to noises coming from their study. Creeping downstairs, they heard the sound of coins being taken from the clergyman’s desk. To their amazement, when they entered the study, the room was empty. He and his wife looked under the desk and behind the curtains and even up the chimney. However, they did not find anybody there. Yet the desk was found open, and the housekeeping money was also missing.

A series of extraordinary things happened at the inn. When Mrs Hall and her husband went into the scientist’s room, they found its door wide open. Usually, it was always shut and locked and the scientist became furious if anyone entered his room. However, when Mrs Hall and her husband peeped round the door, he was nowhere to be seen in the room. His clothes and bandages that he always wore were lying about the room. Suddenly, Mrs Hall heard a sniff close to her ear, and the hat on the bedpost leapt up and dashed itself into her face. Out of nowhere, the bedroom chair sprang into the air and pushed them both out of the room, and then it slammed and locked the door after them. All these incidents made Mrs Hall believe that her furniture and the room was haunted by spirits, and that the stranger had somehow caused these to enter her furniture.