But no result followed this experiment; my footsteps had never fallen more noiselessly.

Where could the board be?
In aimless uncertainty I stepped into the corridor and instantly a creak woke under my foot.

I had located the direction in which one of the so-called phantoms had fled.

It was down this transverse hall.
Flushed with apparent success, I looked up at the walls on either side of me.

They were gray with paint and presented one unbroken surface from base-board to ceiling, save where the two doorways opened, one into the library, the other into the dining-room.