The Golden Leg by Dale Jarvis Read Free Book Online Page A

children.
    The young squire had seen the light in the central window of the abandoned hall
     while out riding early one night. The evening sky was like molten copper, and
     the shadows were extending their reach along the ground. The owners had long
     deserted the house, and it had no occupants, so the strange light had drawn his
     attention. He had slowed his horse to look, and then turning away, had ridden
     on.
    The image of that lit window in the abandoned hall stayed with him. Any light
     in an empty house was strange. But the more he thought on it, the more he was
     convinced that there had been something strange about the quality ofthe light itself. The squire was not an imaginative young man,
     nor was he one given to the contemplation of the world’s mysteries. But the
     light he had seen in the window somehow seized upon whatever small bit of
     curiosity he possessed, and it tugged upon his mind like a fish on a well-baited
     hook.
    He thought about that window for a long time, silently.
    A few weeks later, he was sitting in the warmth and safety of his study with a
     visiting friend. Once they had a good quantity of port wine under their belts,
     the squire told his friend of the illuminated window in the old hall.
    “You’ve spotted a ghost,” joked his friend. Then, made bold by the drink, he
     added, “Let us go see if we can catch him!”
    The squire looked to his glass, and swirled the last bit of port remaining. He
     seemed not to have heard his friend’s words for a moment, but then drained the
     glass in one decisive motion and rose to his feet.
    “We go tonight,” he said, and strode from the room.
    They mounted their horses, and rode off to the old estate. The property had
     been vacant for many years, for so long in fact that there were few who knew the
     names of the original owners. There was a caretaker, however, this much the
     squire knew. The caretaker was an old man from the village, who lived in a small
     cottage on the grounds of the estate. It was the caretaker’s job to keep the
     gates locked, to keep unwanted visitors out, and to keep the wild from engulfing
     the property completely. The latter was a task which seemed to grow more
     formidable with every passing year.
    The two men approached the house, and as they came close, the
     friend drew in close.
    “Sure enough,” he said, pointing to a window illuminated with an eerie,
     forlorn-looking glow. “There is your light!”
    The squire glanced once at the window and rode on, up to the door of the
     caretaker’s cottage. He knocked on the door, and when the caretaker answered,
     the squire demanded entry to the main house.
    The old man shrugged, and shuffled off into the shadows of his cottage. He
     returned, bony fingers clutching a ring of old iron keys. He unlocked the front
     door of the house, and ushered the two men through the darkness of the house to
     the door leading to the upper chamber.
    The caretaker selected one long key from its fellows on the ring. He slid the
     key into the heavy lock and turned it, once. The click echoed through the empty
     hall.
    “I’ll not go in,” murmured the caretaker, taking a step aside and backing away
     from the still-closed door.
    The two men entered, and found that the light in the room was sufficient for
     them to see the various articles of furniture still remaining in the room. What
     struck them most was the fact that there was no lamp or lantern to be seen. The
     room had a light of its own, and it was as strong under the tables as it was
     above. Indeed, there was not a single shadow in the room, nor did the two
     visitors seem to cast any shadows themselves.
    Running the full width of a great mantelpiece was an enormous gold-framed
     mirror. In it, every detail of thechamber was reflected: the
     table, the chairs, the pictures on the walls. Gazing into the mirror, the squire
     beheld his own frightened face staring back at him. Alongside it, everywhere he
     looked, he saw