"So much for that. After about half an hour Sampson looked in again: said
he had felt very unwell, and told us we might go. He came rather gingerly to
his desk, and gave just one look at the uppermost paper: and I suppose he
thought he must have been dreaming: anyhow, he asked no questions

? "That day was a half-holiday, and next day Sampson was in school again,
much as usual. That night the third and last incident in my story happened

? "We - McLeod and I - slept in a dormitory at right angles to the main
building. Sampson slept in the main building on the first floor. There was a
very bright full moon. At an hour which I can't tell exactly, but some time
between one and two, I was woken up by somebody shaking me. It was McLeod,
and a nice state of mind he seemed to be in. 'Come,' he said, - 'come
there's a burglar getting in through Sampson's window.' As soon as I could
speak, I said, 'Well, why not call out and wake everybody up? 'No, no,' he
said, 'I'm not sure who it is: don't make a row: come and look.' Naturally I
came and looked, and naturally there was no one there. I was cross enough,
and should have called McLeod plenty of names: only - I couldn't tell why -
it seemed to me that there was something wrong - something that made me very
glad I wasn't alone to face it. We were still at the window looking out, and
as soon as I could, I asked him what he had heard or seen. 'I didn't hear
anything at all,' he said, 'but about five minutes before I woke you, I
found myself looking out of this window here, and there was a man sitting or
kneeling on Sampson's window-sill, and looking in, and I thought he was
beckoning.' 'What sort of man?' McLeod wriggled. 'I don't know,' he said,
'but I can tell you one thing - he was beastly thin: and he looked as if he
was wet all over: and,' he said, looking round and whispering as if he
hardly liked to hear himself, 'I'm not at all sure that he was alive.'

? "We went on talking in whispers some time longer, and eventually crept
back to bed. No one else in the room woke or stirred the whole time. I
believe we did sleep a bit afterwards, but we were very cheap next day

? "And next day Mr. Sampson was gone: not to be found: and I believe no
trace of him has ever come to light since. In thinking it over, one of the
oddest things about it all has seemed to me to be the fact that neither
McLeod nor I ever mentioned what we had seen to any third person whatever.
Of course no questions were asked on the subject, and if they had been, I am
inclined to believe that we could not have made any answer: we seemed unable
to speak about it

? "That is my story," said the narrator. "The only approach to a ghost
story connected with a school that I know, but still, I think, an approach
to such a thing."