"I don't agree with you," Sickertorft said quietly. "I am positively certain that there are such things as ghosts, that they are objective and of many kinds. Some, in all probability, have always existed, and have never inhabited any human body; some are the earth-bound spiritual egos of man and beast; and some we can create ourselves."
"Create ghosts!" Sir George cried. "Come, now, we are talking sense. Of course we can create ghosts. Pepper did, Maskelyne and Devant still do, and so do all the so-called materialising mediums."
"I don't mean spoof ghosts," Sickertorft responded. "I mean real ones. Real superphysical, objective phenomena. Man can at times create them, but only by intense concentration."
"If you like to term them such," Sickertorft replied. "I believe they are responsible for a certain percentage of hauntings, but not all."
"Well, I've never seen any of your ghostly thought forms nor, in my opinion, am I ever likely to," Sir George growled. "Show me one and I'll believe. But you can't."
"I don't know so much," Sickertorft muttered, and, with his eyes still on the cupboard, he followed Sir George into his study.
A week later Lucy, a maid at "The Mayfields," was walking past the cupboard on her way to the dining-room, when something, as she subsequently described it to the cook, came over her, and she ran for her life.
"I didn't hear anything nor see anything," she explained. "I only felt there was something nasty hiding there, ready to spring out."
The following night she had the same experience, and her terror was so great that she ran shrieking into the dining-room, and it was some moments before she could make any coherent statement. Lady Cookham was very angry with her, and said it was all nonsense. There was nothing whatever wrong with the cupboard, and, if it occurred again, she must go. It did occur again, the very next night, and Lucy, without waiting for her dismissal, gave notice. She said this time she heard a laugh, a low chuckle, very sinister, and suggestive also of the utmost glee. The door of the cupboard creaked and, she believed, opened a little; but on this point she could not be absolutely certain. She only knew her horror was infinitely greater than it had been on former occasions, and that when she ran, she was convinced something very dreadful ran after her.