The White Devil

Room13

Viborg is a city in Denmark. It is an old city, but it has only
a few old buildings. A great fire destroyed most of the old
town in 1726.
Mr Anderson was writing a book on the history of
Denmark. He went to Viborg in 1891. He wanted to study
the history of the town.
He stayed in an old building in Viborg – The Golden
Lion Inn. The inn was nearly 350 years old.
Anderson asked the landlord for a large room. The
landlord of The Golden Lion showed him two rooms – room
number 12 and room number 14. There were three large
windows in each room. The windows looked onto the street.
Anderson chose room number 12.
In the evening, Anderson went downstairs for supper.
He saw a blackboard. The names of all the guests were
written on the blackboard. Anderson saw that the inn was
full. There were no empty rooms. Anderson noticed that
there was no room number 13.
Thirteen is an unlucky number. Many people do not
want to stay in a room with an unlucky number.
When Anderson went upstairs to bed, he tried to unlock
his door. It did not open. Then he saw that he had made a
mistake. It was the wrong room. The number on the door
was number 13.
He heard someone moving inside the room.
‘I’m very sorry,’ he said and went to the door of room
number 12.
Perhaps the servants sleep in room 13, Anderson
thought. He decided to ask the landlord about it the next day

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