After that, I lit the lamp which I had brought from the kitchen, and
went down to have a look at the lower windows.
Now that I had seen an instance of the strength the creatures
possessed, I felt considerable anxiety about the windows on the ground
floor--in spite of the fact that they were so strongly barred.
I went first to the buttery, having a vivid remembrance of my late
adventure there. The place was chilly, and the wind, soughing in through
the broken glass, produced an eerie note. Apart from the general air of
dismalness, the place was as I had left it the night before. Going up to
the window, I examined the bars, closely; noting, as I did so, their
comfortable thickness. Still, as I looked more intently, it seemed to
me, that the middle bar was bent slightly from the straight; yet it was
but trifling, and it might have been so for years. I had never, before,
noticed them particularly.
I put my hand through the broken window, and shook the bar. It was as
firm as a rock. Perhaps the creatures had tried to 'start' it, and,
finding it beyond their power, ceased from the effort.
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