text:  The mystery remained unexplained though we fear that most sober Franks (in spite of the corroboration afforded to the doorkeeper's theory by the high authority of the _Thousand and One Nights_[18]) will be tempted to share Mrs Poole's scepticism as to the remains of a devil assuming the shape of the calcined sole of an old shoe: but after an interval of peace they were eventually compelled by a renewal of the attack to abandon the haunted house--and those who succeeded them fared even worse