The old oak staircase had two creaking steps, numbers seventeen and eighteen from the top.

The girl would sit on the stair, stretching out her arms, and count the steps as they passed her, one, two, three, and so on to seventeen and eighteen, _which always creaked_.

{190} In this case rats and similar causes were excluded, though we may allow for "expectant attention".

But this does not generally work.

When people sit up on purpose to look out for the ghost, he rarely comes; in the case of the "Lady in Black," which we give later, when purposely waited for, she was never seen at all.
Discounting imposture, which is sometimes found, and sometimes merely fabled (as in the Tedworth story), there remains one curious circumstance.