/- 
 
 THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER.
 
 The Mystery 
 of Cloomber 
 
 By A. CONAN DOYLE 
 
 Author of 
 
 "Sherlock Holmes," "Micah Clarke," 
 
 "The White Company," "The Refugees," 
 
 etc., etc. 
 
 R. F. FENNO & COMPANY 
 1 8 East Seventeenth St. New York
 
 COPYRIGHT, DS95 
 & & FENNO & COMP&MtJ
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter Page 
 I. The Hegira of the Wests from Edin- 
 burgh 7 
 
 II. Of the Strange Manner in which a 
 
 Tenant came to Cloomber . . 13 
 
 III. Of our Further Acquaintance with 
 
 Major-General J. B. Heatherstone 22 
 
 IV. Of a Young Man with a Grey Head 34 
 V. How four of us came to be under the 
 
 Shadow of Cloomber . . . 43 
 VI. How I came to be Enlisted as One of 
 
 the Garrison of Cloomber . . 58 
 VII. Of Corporal Rufus Smith and his 
 
 Coming to Cloomber . . .66 
 VIII. Statement of Israel Stakes. . 83 
 IX. Narrative of John Easterling, F. R. C. P. 
 
 Edin IOO 
 
 X. Of the Letter which came from the 
 
 Hall 113 
 
 [51
 
 Chapter Pago 
 
 XL Of the Casting Away of the Bark 
 
 " Belinda" 117 
 
 XII. Of the Three Foreign Men upon the 
 
 Coast 139 
 
 XIII. In which I see that which has been 
 
 seen by few 150 
 
 XIV. Of the Visitor who ran down the 
 
 road in the Night-time. 176 
 
 XV. The Day-book of John Berthier 
 
 Heatherstone. .... 196 
 
 XVI. At the Hole of Cree . . . .223 
 
 Addendum ....*. 241
 
 THE MYSTERY OF CLOOMBER. 
 
 CHAPTER t. 
 
 THE HEGIRA OF THE WESTS FROM EDINBURGH. 
 
 I, JAMES FOTHERGILL WEST, student of law in 
 the University of St. Andrews, have endeavored 
 in the ensuing pages to lay my statement before 
 the public in a concise and business-like fash- 
 ion. It is not my wish to achieve literary sue- 
 cess ; nor have I any desire by the graces of my 
 style, or by the artistic ordering of my incidents, 
 to throw a deeper shadow over the strange pas- 
 sages of which I shall have to speak. My high, 
 est ambition is that those who know something 
 of the matter should, after reading my account, 
 be able to conscientiously endorse it without 
 finding a single paragraph in which I have either 
 added to or detracted from the truth. Should I
 
 8 
 
 attain this result, I shall rest amply satisfied 
 with the outcome of my first, and probably my 
 last, venture in literature. 
 
 It was my intention to write out the sequence 
 of events in due order, depending upon trust- 
 worthy hearsay when I was describing that 
 which was beyond my own personal knowledge. 
 I have now, however, through the kind co-oper- 
 ation of friends, hit upon a plan which promises 
 to be less onerous to me and more satisfactory 
 to the reader. This is nothing less than to make 
 use of the various manuscripts which I have by 
 me bearing upon the subject, and to add to 
 them first-hand evidence contributed by those 
 who had the best opportunities of knowing 
 Major-General J. B. Heatherstone. In pursuance 
 of this design I shall lay before the public the 
 testimony of Israel Stakes, formerly coachman 
 at Cloomber Hall, and of John Easterling, F. R. 
 C. P. Edin., now practising at Stranraer, in Wig. 
 townshire. To these I shall add a verbatim 
 account extracted from the journal of the late 
 John Berthier Heatherstone, of the events which 
 occurred in the Thul Valley in the autumn of 
 41, towards the end of the first Afghan war, 
 with a description of the skirmish in the Terada 
 defile, and of the death of the man Ghoolab
 
 Shah. To myself I reserve the duty of filling up 
 all the gaps and chinks which may be left in the 
 narrative. By this arrangement I have sunk 
 from the position of an author to that of a com- 
 piler, but on the other hand my work has ceased 
 to be a story and has expanded into a series of 
 affidavits! 
 
 My father, John Hunter West, was a well- 
 known Oriental and Sanscrit scholar, and his 
 name is still of weight with those who are inter- 
 ested in such matters. He it was who first after 
 Sir William Jones called attention to the great 
 value of early Persian literature, and his transla- 
 tions both from Hafizand from Ferideddin Atar 
 have earned the warmest commendations from 
 the Baron Von Hammer-Purgstall, of Vienna, 
 and other distinguished Continental critics. In 
 the issue of the Orientalisches Scienz-blatt for Jan- 
 uary, 1861, he is described as " Der beruhmte 
 und sehr gelehrnte Hunter West von Edin- 
 burgh " a passage which I well remember that 
 he cut out and stowed away, with a pardonable 
 vanity, among the most revered family archives. 
 
 He had been brought up to be a solicitor, or 
 Writer to the Signet, as it is termed in Scotland, 
 but his learned hobby absorbed so much of his 
 time that he had little to devote to the pursuit of
 
 xo 
 
 his profession. When his clients were seeking 
 him at his chambers in George Street he was 
 buried in the recesses of the Advocates' Library, 
 or poring over some mouldy manuscript at the 
 Philosophical Institution, with his brain more 
 exercised over the code which Menu pro- 
 pounded six hundred years before the birth of 
 Christ than over the knotty problems of Scottish 
 law in the nineteenth century. 
 
 Hence it can hardly be wondered at that as 
 his learning accumulated his practise dissolved, 
 until at the very moment when he had attained 
 the zenith of his celebrity he had also reached 
 the nadir of his fortunes. There being no chair 
 of Sanscrit in any of his native universities, and 
 no demand anywhere for the only mental wares 
 he had to dispose of, we should have been forced 
 to retire into genteel poverty, consoling our- 
 selves with the aphorisms and precepts of Fir,, 
 dousi, Omar Chiam, and other of his Eastern 
 favorites, had it not been for the unexpected 
 kindness and liberality of his half-brother, Wil- 
 liam Farintosh, the Laird of Branksome in Wig. 
 townshire. 
 
 This William Farintosh was the proprietor of 
 a landed estate the acreage of which bore, unfor- 
 tunately, a most disproportional relation to its
 
 II 
 
 value, for it formed the bleakest and most bar. 
 ren tract of land in the whole of a bleak and 
 barren shire. As a bachelor, however, his ex- 
 penses had been small, and he had contrived 
 from the rents ol his scattered cottages, and the 
 sale of the Galloway nags, which he bred upon 
 the moors, not only to live as a laird should, but 
 to put by a considerable sum in the bank. 
 
 We had heard little from our kinsman during 
 the days of our comparative prosperity ; but just 
 as we were at our wits* end, there came a letter 
 like a ministering angel, giving us assurance of 
 sympathy and succor. In it the Laird of Brank. 
 some told us that one of his lungs had been 
 growing weaker for some time, and that Dr. 
 Easterling, of Stranraer, had strongly advised 
 him to spend the few years which were left to 
 him in some more genial climate. He had de- 
 termined, therefore, to set out for the South of 
 Italy, and he begged that we should take up our 
 residence at Branksome in his absence, and that 
 my father should act as his land steward and 
 agent at a salary which placed us above all fear 
 of want. 
 
 Our mother had been dead for some years, so 
 that there were only myself, my father, and my 
 sister Esther to consult ; and it may readily be
 
 12 
 
 imagined that it did not take us long to decide 
 upon the acceptance of the laird's generous offer. 
 My father started for Wigtown that very night, 
 while Esther and I followed a few days after- 
 wards, bearing with us two potato-sacks full of 
 learned books, and such other of our household 
 effects as were worth the trouble and expense of 
 transport
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 OF THE STRANGE MANNER IN WHICH A 
 CAME TO CLOOMBER. 
 
 BRANKSOME might have appeared a poor 
 dwelling-place when compared to the house of 
 an English squire ; but to us, after our long resi- 
 dence in stuffy apartments, it was of regal mag- 
 nificence. The building was broadspread and 
 low, with red-tiled roof, diamond-paned win- 
 dows, and a profusion of dining-rooms with 
 smoke-blackened ceilings and oaken wainscots. 
 In front was a small lawn, girt round with a thin 
 fringe of haggard and ill-grown beeches, all 
 gnarled and withered from the blighting effects 
 of the sea spray. Behind lay the scattered ham- 
 let of Branksome-Bere a dozen cottages at most 
 inhabited by rude fisher-folk who looked upon 
 the laird as their natural protector. To the 
 west was the broad yellow beach and the Irish 
 Sea; while in all other directions the desolate 
 moors, greyish green in the foreground and 
 purple in the distance, stretched away in long, 
 low curves to the horizon.
 
 Very bleak and lonely it was upon this Wig. 
 town coast. A man might walk many a weary 
 mile and never see a living thing except the 
 white, heavy-flapping kittiwakes, which screamed 
 and cried to each other with their shrill, sad 
 voices. Very lonely and very bleak ! Once out 
 of sight of Branksome and there was no sign of 
 the works of man save only where the high, white 
 tower of Cloomber Hall shot up, like the head- 
 stone of some giant grave, from amid the firs 
 and larches which girt it round. This great 
 house, a mile or more from our dwelling, had 
 been built by a wealthy Glasgow merchant of 
 strange tastes and lonely habits ; but at the time 
 of our arrival it had been untenanted for many 
 years, and stood with weather-blotched walls and 
 vacant, staring windows looking blankly out over 
 the hill side. Empty and mildewed, it served 
 only as a landmark to the fishermen, for they had 
 found by experience that by keeping the laird's 
 chimney and the white tower of Cloomber in a 
 line they could steer their way through the ugly 
 reef which raises its jagged back, like that of some 
 sleeping monster, above the troubled waters of 
 the wind-swept bay. 
 
 ' To this wild spot it was that fate had brought 
 my father, my sister, and myself. For us its
 
 15 
 
 loneliness had no terrors. After the hubbub and 
 bustle of a great city, and the weary task of up- 
 holding appearances upon a slender income, 
 there was a grand, soul-soothing serenity in the 
 long sky-line and the eager air. Here at least 
 there was no neighbor to pry and chatter. The 
 laird had left his phaeton and two ponies behind 
 him, with the aid of which my father and I 
 would go the round of the estate doing such 
 light duties as fall to an agent ; while our gentle 
 Esther looked to our household needs, an<< 
 brightened the dark old building. Such was 
 our simple, uneventful existence until the summer 
 night when an unlooked-for incident occurred 
 which proved to be the herald of those strange 
 doings which I have taken up my pen to de- 
 scribe.] 
 
 It had been my habit to pull out of an evening 
 in the laird's skiff and to catch a few whiting 
 which might serve for our supper. On this 
 well-remembered occasion my sister came with 
 me, sitting with her book in the stern-sheets of 
 the boat, while I hung my lines over the bows. 
 The sun had sunk down behind the rugged Irish 
 coast, but a long bank of flushed clouds still 
 marked the spot, and cast a glory upon the 
 waters. The whole broad ocean was seamed
 
 i6 
 
 and scarred with crimson streaks. I had risen 
 in the boat, and was gazing round in delight at 
 the broad panorama of shore and sea and sky, 
 when my sister plucked at my sleeve with a 
 little, sharp cry of surprise. 
 
 " See, John," she cried ; " there is a light in 
 Cloomber Tower 1" 
 
 [ I turned my head and stared back at the tall, 
 white turret which peeped out above the belt of 
 trees. As I gazed I distinctly saw at one of the 
 windows the glint of a light, which suddenly 
 vanished, and then shone out once more from 
 another higher up. There it flickered for some 
 time, and finally flashed past two successive win- 
 dows underneath before the trees obscured our 
 view of it. It was clear that some one bearing a 
 lamp or a candle had climbed up the tower stairs 
 and had then returned into the body of the 
 house. 
 
 " Who in the world can it be I" I exclaimed, 
 speaking rather to myself than to Esther, for I 
 could see by the surprise upon her face that she 
 had no solution to offer. " Maybe some of the 
 folk from Branksome-Bere have wanted to look 
 over the place." 
 
 My sister shook her head. "There is not one 
 of them would dare to set foot within the avenue
 
 '7 
 
 gates," she said. " Besides, John, the keys are 
 kept by the house-agent at Wigtown. Were 
 they ever so curious, none of .our people could 
 find their way in." 
 
 When I reflected upon the massive door and 
 ponderous shutters which guarded the lower 
 story of Cloomber I could not but admit the 
 force of my sister's objection. The untimely 
 visitor must either have used considerable vio- 
 lence in order to force his way in, or he must 
 have obtained possession of the keys. Piqued 
 by the little mystery, I pulled for the beach, 
 with the determination to see for myself who the 
 Intruder mi^ht be, and what were his intentions. 
 Leaving my sister at Branksome, and summon- 
 ing Seth Jamieson, an old man-o'-war's-man, and 
 one of the stoutest of the fishermen, I set off 
 across the moor with him through the gathering 
 darkness. 
 
 " It hasna got a guid name after dark, yon 
 hoose," remarked my companion, slackening his 
 pace perceptibly as I explained to him the nature 
 of our errand. " It's no for naething that him 
 wha owns it wunna gang within a Scotch mile 
 o't." 
 
 " Well, Seth, there is some one who has no 
 fears about going into it," said I, pointing to the
 
 18 
 
 great, white building which flickered up in front 
 of us through the gloom. The light which I had 
 observed from the sea was moving backwards 
 and forwards past the lower-floor windows, the 
 shutters of which had been removed. I could 
 now see that a second, fainter light followed a 
 few paces behind the other. Evidently two 
 individuals, the one with a lamp and the other 
 with a candle or rushlight, were making a care- 
 ful examination of the building. 
 
 " Let ilka man blaw his ain parritch," said Seth 
 Jamieson, doggedly, coming to a dead stop. 
 " What is it tae us if a wraith or a bogle chooses 
 tae tak' a fancy tae Cloomber? It's no canny 
 tae meddle wi' such things." 
 
 " Why, man," I cried, "you don't suppose a 
 wraith came here in a gig! What are those 
 lights away yonder by the avenue gates?" 
 
 " The lamps o* a gig, sure enough !" exclaimed 
 tiny companion in a less lugubrious voice. 
 " Let's steer for it, Master West, and speer where 
 she hails Ijrae." 
 
 By this time night had closed in save for a 
 single long, narrow slit in the westward. Stum- 
 bling across the moor together, we made our 
 way into the Wigtown Road, at the point where 
 the high, stone pillars mark the entrance to the
 
 '9 
 
 Cloomber avenue. A tall dog-cart stood in 
 front of the gateway, the horse browsing upon 
 the thin border of grass which skirted the road. 
 
 " It's a* richt !" said Jamieson, taking a close 
 look at the deserted vehicle. " I ken it weel. 
 It belongs tae Maister McNeil, the factor body 
 frae Wigtown him who keeps the keys." 
 
 " Then we may as well have speech with him 
 now that we are here," I answered. " They are 
 coming down, if I am not mistaken." As I 
 spoke we heard the slam of the heavy door, and 
 within a few minutes two figures, the one tall 
 and angular, the other short and thick, came 
 towards us through the darkness. They were 
 talking so earnestly that they did not observe us 
 until they had passed through the avenue gate. 
 
 " Good evening, Mr. McNeil," said I, stepping 
 forward and addressing the Wigtown factor, 
 with whom I had some slight acquaintance. 
 The smaller of the two turned his face towards 
 me as I spoke, and showed me that I was not 
 mistaken in his identity, but his taller compan- 
 ion sprang back and showed every sign of vio- 
 lent agitation. 
 
 " What is this, McNeil ?" I heard him say, in a 
 gasping, choking voice. " Is this your promise ? 
 What is the meaning of it?"
 
 2O 
 
 " Don't be alarmed, general I Don't be a 
 larmed!"said the little, fat factor in a soothing 
 fashion, as one might speak to a frightened child 
 " This is young Mr. Fothergill West, of Brank- 
 some, though what brings him up here to-night 
 is more than I can understand. However, as 
 you are to be neighbors, I can't do better than 
 take the opportunity to introduce you to each 
 other. Mr. West, this is General Heatherstone, 
 who is about to take a lease of Cloomber Hall. 
 
 I held out my hand to the tall man, who took 
 it in a hesitating, half-reluctant fashion. " I 
 came up," I explained, " because I saw your 
 lights in the windows, and thought that some- 
 thing might be wrong. I am very glad I did so, 
 since it has given me the chance of making the 
 general's acquaintance." 
 
 Whilst I was talking I was conscious that the 
 new tenant of Cloomber Hall was peering at me 
 very closely through the darkness. As I con- 
 eluded he stretched out a long, tremulous arm 
 and turned the gig-lamp in such a way as to 
 throw a flood of light on my face. 
 
 " Good God, McNeil 1" he cried, in the same 
 frightened voice as before, "the fellow's as 
 brown as chocolate! He's not an Englishman. 
 You're not an Englishman vou, sir ?"
 
 91 
 
 " I*m a Scotchman, born and ored," said I, 
 with an inclination to laugh, which was only 
 checked by my new acquaintance's obvious 
 terror. 
 
 "A Scotchman, eh?" said he with a sfgh of 
 relief. " It's all one nowadays. You must 
 excuse me, Mr. Mr. West. I'm nervous, in- 
 fernally nervous. Come along, McNeil ; we 
 must be back in Wigtown in less than an hour. 
 Good-night, gentlemen, good-night 1" The two 
 clambered into their places; the factor cracked 
 his whip, and the high dog-cart clattered away 
 through the darkness, casting a brilliant tunnel 
 of yellow light on either side of it, until the 
 rumble of its wheels died away in the distance. 
 
 "What do you think of our new neighbor, 
 Jamieson ?" I asked, after a long silence. 
 
 " Deed, Mr. West, he seems, as he says him- 
 self, to be vera nervous. Maybe his conscience 
 is oot o' order." 
 
 " His liver, more likely,** said I. " He looks 
 as if he had tried his constitution a bit. But it's 
 blowing chill, Seth, my lad, and it's time both of 
 us were indoors.*' I bade my companion good- 
 night, and struck off across the moors for the 
 cherry, ruddy light which marked the parlor 
 windows of Branksome.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OP OUR FURTHER ACQUAINTANCE WITH MAJOR. 
 GENERAL J. B. HEATHERSTONE. 
 
 THERE was, as may well be imagined, much 
 stir amongst our small community at the news 
 that the Hall was to be inhabited once more, 
 and considerable speculation as to the new ten- 
 ants and their objects in choosing this particular 
 part of the country for their residence. It 
 speedily became apparent that, whatever their 
 motives might be, they had definitely determined 
 upon a lengthy stay ; for relays of plumbers and 
 of joiners came down from Wigtown, and there 
 was hammering and repairing going on from 
 morning till night. It was surprising how 
 quick the signs of the wind and weather were 
 effaced, until the great, square-set house was all 
 as spick-and-span as though it had been erected 
 yesterday. There were abundant signs that 
 money was no consideration to General Heath- 
 erstone, and that it was not on the score of 
 retrenchment that he had taken up his abode 
 among us.
 
 23 
 
 " It may be that he is devoted to study," sug- 
 gested my father, as we discussed the question 
 round the breakfast table. " Perhaps he has 
 chosen this secluded spot to finish some magnum 
 opus upon which he is engaged. If that is the 
 case, I should be happy to let him have the run 
 of my library." 
 
 Esther and I laughed at the grandiloquent 
 manner in which he spoke of the two potato- 
 sacks full of books. 
 
 " it may be as you say," said I, " but the 
 general did not strike me during my short inter- 
 view as being a man who was likely to have any 
 very pronounced literary tastes. If I might 
 hazard a guess, I should say that he is here upon 
 medical advice, in the hopes that the complete 
 quiet and the fresh air may restore his shattered 
 nervous system. If you had seen how he glared 
 at me, and the twitching of his fingers, you 
 would have thought it needed some restoring." 
 
 " I do wonder whether he has a wife and a 
 family," said my sister. " Poor souls, how lonely 
 they will be! Why, excepting ourselves, there 
 is not a family that they could speak to for seven 
 miles and more." 
 
 " General Heatherstone is a very distinguished 
 soldier," remarked my father.
 
 24 
 
 "Why, papa, however came you to know 
 anything about him?" 
 
 " Ah, my dears," said my father, smiling at us 
 over his coffee cup, "you were laughing at my 
 library just now, but you see it may be very use. 
 ful at times." As he spoke he took a red=cov- 
 ered volume from a shelf and turned over the 
 pages. "This is an Indian Army List of three 
 years back," he explained, " and here is the very 
 gentleman we want' Heatherstone, J. B., Com- 
 mander of the Bath,' my dears, and ' V.C.', 
 think of that, ' V.C.' 'formerly colonel in the 
 Indian Infantry, 4ist Bengal Foot, but now re- 
 tired with the rank of major-general.' In this 
 other column is a record of his services ' cap- 
 ture of Ghuznee and defense of Jellalabad, Sobra- 
 on 1848, Indian Mutiny and reduction of Oudh. 
 Five times mentioned in dispatches.' I think, 
 my dears, that we have cause to be proud of our 
 new neighbor." 
 
 " It doesn't mention there whether he is mar- 
 ried or not, I suppose," asked Esther. 
 
 " No," said my father, wagging his white head 
 with a keen appreciation of his own humor. " It 
 doesn't include that under the heading of ' daring 
 actions 'though it very well might, my dear, 
 it very well might."
 
 All our doubts, however, upon this head were 
 very soon set at rest, for on the very day that 
 the repairing and the furnishing had been com- 
 pleted I had occasion to ride into Wigtown, and 
 I met upon the way a carriage which was bear- 
 ing General Heatherstone and his family to their 
 new home. An elderly lady, worn and sickly- 
 looking was by his side, and opposite him sat a 
 young fellow about my own age and a girl who 
 appeared to be a couple of years younger. I 
 raised my hat, and was about to pass them, when 
 the general shouted to his coachman to pull up, 
 and held out his hand to me. I could see now 
 in the daylight that his face, although harsh and 
 stern, was capable of assuming a not unkindly 
 expression. 
 
 "How are you, Mr. Fothergill West?" ho 
 cried. " I must apologize to you if I was a little 
 brusque the other night you will excuse an old 
 soldier who has spent the best part of his life in 
 harness. All the same you must confess that 
 you are rather dark-skinned for a Scotchman." 
 
 4< We have a Spanish strain in our blood," *aid 
 I, wondering at his recurrence to the topic. 
 
 " That would of course account for it," he re- 
 marked. " My dear," to his wife, " allow me to 
 introduce Mr. Fothergill West to you. This is
 
 26 
 
 my son and my daughter. We have come here 
 in search of rest, Mr. West complete rest." 
 
 " And you could not possibly have come to a 
 better place," said I. 
 
 " Oh, you think so, he answered ; " I suppose 
 it is very quiet indeed, and very lonely. You 
 might walk through these country lanes at night, 
 I dare say, and never meet a soul, eh ?" 
 
 " Well, there are not many about after dark," 
 I said. 
 
 " And you are not much troubled with va- 
 grants or wandering beggars, eh ? Not many 
 tinkers or tramps or rascally gypsies no ver- 
 min of that sort about ?" 
 
 " I find it rather cold," said Mrs. Heatherstone, 
 drawing her thick sealskin mantle tighter round 
 her figure. " We are detaining Mr. West, too." 
 
 "So we are, my dear, so we are. Drive on, 
 coachman. Good day, Mr. West." The car- 
 riage rattled away towards the Hall, and I trot- 
 ted thoughtfully onwards to the little county 
 metropolis. 
 
 As I passed up the High Street Mr. McNeil 
 ran out from his office and beckoned to me to 
 stop. "Our new tenants have gone out," he 
 said. " They drove over this morning." 
 
 " I met them on the way," I answered. As I
 
 looked down at the little factor I could see that 
 his face was flushed and that he bore every ap- 
 pearance of having had an extra glass. 
 
 " Give me a real gentleman to do business 
 with," he said, with a burst of laughter. "They 
 understands me and I understands them. ' What 
 shall I fill it up for ?' says the general, taking a 
 blank check out o* his pouch and laying it on 
 the table. ' Two hundred/ says I, leaving a bit 
 o* a margin for my own time and trouble." 
 
 " I thought that the landlord paid you for 
 that," 1 remarked. 
 
 41 Aye, aye, but it's well to have a bit margin. 
 He filled it up and threw it over to me as if it 
 had been an auld postage stamp. That's the 
 way business should be done between honest 
 men though it wouldna' do if one was inclined 
 to take an advantage. Will ye not come in, Mr. 
 West, and have a taste of my whisky ?" 
 
 " No, thank you," said I ; " I have business to 
 do." 
 
 " Well, well, business is the chief thing. It's 
 well not to drink in the morning, too. For my 
 own part, except a drop before breakfast to give 
 me an appetite, and maybe a glass, or even twa, 
 afterwards to promote digestion, I never touch 
 spirits before noon. It may be that I'm over
 
 28 
 
 particular, but it's as well to be on the safe side. 
 What d'ye think o' the general, Mr. West ?" 
 
 " Why, I have hardly had an opportunity of 
 judging," I answered. 
 
 Mr. McNeil tapped his forehead with his fore- 
 finger. " That's what I think of him," he said, 
 in a confidential whisper. " He's gone, sir, in 
 my estimation. Now what would you consider 
 to be a proof of madness, Mr. West ?" 
 
 " Why, offering a blank check to a Wigtown 
 house-agent," said I. 
 
 "Ah, you're aye at your jokes. But between 
 oorsels now, if a man asked ye how many miles 
 it was frae a seaport, and whether ships come 
 there from the East, and whether there were 
 tramps on the road, and whether it was against 
 the lease for him to build a high wall round the 
 grounds, what would ye make of it, eh ?" 
 
 " I should certainly think him eccentric," said 
 I. 
 
 " If every man had his due, he would find him- 
 el* in a house with a high wall round the grounds, 
 and that without costing him a farthing," said 
 the agent. 
 
 "Where then?" I asked. 
 
 44 Why, in the Wigtown County Lunatic 
 Asylum," cried the little man, with a bubble of
 
 laughter, in the midst of which I rode on my 
 way, leaving him still chuckling over his own 
 facetiousness. 
 
 The arrival of the new family at Cloomber 
 Hall had no preceptible effect in relieving the 
 monotony of our secluded district, for instead of 
 entering into such simple pleasures as the coun- 
 try had to offer, or interesting themselves, as we 
 had hoped, in our attempts to improve the lot of 
 our poor crofters and fisher folk, they seemed to 
 shun all observation, and hardly ever to venture 
 beyond the avenue gates. We soon found too 
 that the factor's words as to the inclosing of the 
 grounds were founded upon fact, for gangs of 
 workmen were kept hard at work from early in 
 the morning until late at night in erecting a high 
 wooden fence round the whole estate. When this 
 was finished and topped with spikes Cloomber 
 Park became impregnable to any one but an ex- 
 ceptionably daring climber. It was as if the old 
 soldier had been so imbued with military ideas 
 that, like my Uncle Toby, he could not refrain 
 even in times of peace from standing upon the 
 defensive. Stranger still, he had victualled the 
 house as if for a siege, for Begbie, the chief 
 grocer of Wigtown, told me himself that the 
 general had sent him an order for hundreds of
 
 30 
 
 dozens of every imaginable potted meat and 
 vegetable. 
 
 It may be imagined that all these incidents 
 were not allowed to pass without comment. 
 Over the whole country-side there was nothing 
 but gossip about the new tenants of Cloomber 
 Hall and the reasons which had led them to 
 come among us. The only hypothesis, however, 
 which the bucolic mind could evolve was that 
 which had already occurred to Mr. McNeil, the 
 factor namely, that the old general and his 
 family were one and all afflicted with madness, 
 or, as an alternative conclusion, that he had 
 committed some heinous offense and was en- 
 deavoring to escape the consequences of his 
 misdeeds. These were both natural suppositions 
 under the circumstances ; but neither of them 
 appeared to commend itself as a true explanation 
 of the facts. 
 
 It is true that General Heatherstone's be- 
 havior on the occasion of our first interview 
 was such as to suggest some suspicion of mental 
 disease; but no man could have been more 
 reasonable or more courteous than he had after, 
 wards shown himself to be. Then, again, his 
 wife and children led the same secluded life that 
 he did himself; so that the reason could not bq
 
 one peculiar to his own health. As to the possi- 
 bility of his being a fugitive from justice, that 
 theory was even more untenable. Wigtownshire 
 was bleak and lonely, but it was not such an 
 obscure corner of the world that a well-known 
 soldier could hope to conceal himself there ; nor 
 would a man who feared publicity set every 
 one's tongue wagging as the general had done. 
 On the whole, I was inclined to believe that the 
 true solution of the enigma lay in his own 
 allusion to the love of quiet, and that they had 
 taken shelter here with an almost morbid craving 
 for solitude and repose. We very soon had an 
 instance of the great lengths to which this desire 
 for isolation would carry them. 
 
 My father had come down one morning with 
 the weight of a great determination upon his 
 brow. " You must put on your pink frock to- 
 day, Esther," said he ; " and you, John, you must 
 make yourself smart, for I have determined that 
 the three of us shall drive round this afternoon 
 and pay our respects to Mrs. Heatherstone and 
 the general." 
 
 " A visit to Cloomber 1" cried Esther, clapping 
 her hands. 
 
 " I am here," said my father, with dignity, 
 * not only as the laird's agent, but also as his
 
 32 
 
 kinsman. In that capacity I am convinced that 
 he would wish me to call upon these new comers 
 and offer them any politeness which is in our 
 power. At present they must feel lonely and 
 friendless. What says the great Firdousi ? 
 4 The choicest ornaments to a man's house are 
 his friends.'" 
 
 My sister and I knew by experience that when 
 the old man began to justify his resolution by 
 quotations from the Persian poets there was no 
 chance of shaking it. Sure enough that after- 
 noon saw the phaeton at the door, with my 
 father perched upon the seat, with his second' 
 best coat on and a pair of new driving-gloves. 
 
 " Jump in, my dears," he cried, cracking his 
 whip briskly ; " we shall show the general that 
 he has no cause to be ashamed of his neighbors." 
 
 Alas, pride always goes before a fall ! Our 
 well-fed ponies and shining harness were not 
 destined that day to impress the tenants of 
 Cloomber with a sense of our importance. We 
 had reached the avenue gate, and I was about to 
 get out and open it, when our attention was 
 arrested by a very large wooden placard, which 
 was attached to one of the trees in such a manner 
 that no one could possibly pass without seeing 
 St. On the white surface of this board was
 
 33 
 
 printed in big, black letters the following hos- 
 pitable inscription : 
 
 GENERAL AND MRS. HEATHERSTONE 
 HAVE NO WISH 
 
 TO INCREASE 
 THE CIRCLE OF THEIR ACQUAINTANCE. 
 
 We all sat gazing at this announcement for 
 some moments in silent astonishment. Then 
 Esther and I, tickled by the absurdity of the 
 thing, burst out laughing, but my father pulled 
 the ponies' heads round, and drove home with 
 compressed lips and the cloud of much wrath 
 upon his brow. I have never seen the good man 
 so thoroughly moved, and I am convinced that 
 his anger did not arise from any petty feeling of 
 injured vanity upon his own part, but from the 
 thought that a slight had been offered to the 
 Laird of Branksome whose dignity he repre- 
 sented.
 
 34 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OF A YOUNG MAN WITH A GREY HEAD. 
 
 IF I had any personal soreness on account of 
 this family snub, it was a very passing emotion, 
 and one which was soon effaced from my mind. 
 It chanced that on the very next day after the 
 episode I had occasion to pass that way and 
 stopped to have another look at the obnoxious 
 placard. I was standing staring up at it and 
 wondering what could have induced our 
 neighbor to take such an outrageous step, when 
 I became suddenly aware of a sweet, girlish face 
 which peeped out at me from between the bars 
 of the gate, and of a white hand which eagerly 
 beckoned me to approach. As I advanced to 
 her I saw that it was the same young lady 
 whom I had seen in the carriage. 
 
 " Mr. West," she said, in a quick whisper, 
 glancing from side to side as she spoke in a 
 nervous, hasty manner, " I wish to apologize to 
 you for the indignity to which you and your 
 family were subjected yesterday. My brother 
 was ia the avenue, and saw it all, but he is
 
 35 
 
 powerless to interfere. I assure you, Mr. West, 
 that if that hateful thing," pointing up at the 
 placard, " has given you any annoyance, it has 
 given my brother and myself far more." 
 
 " Why, Miss Heatherstone ?" said I, putting 
 the matter off with a laugh. " Britain is a free 
 country, and if a man chooses to warn off visitors 
 from his premises there is no reason why he 
 should not." 
 
 " It is nothing less than brutal," she broke out, 
 with a petulant stamp of her foot. " To think 
 that your sister, too, should have such an un- 
 provoked insult offered to her ! I am ready to 
 sink with shame at the very thought." 
 
 " Pray do not give yourself one moment's un- 
 easiness upon the subject," said I, earnestly, for 
 I was grieved at her evident distress. " I am 
 sure that your father has some reason unknown 
 to us for taking this step." 
 
 " God knows he has !" she answered, with 
 ineffable sadness in her voice, " and yet I think 
 it would be more manly to face a danger than to 
 fly from it. However, he knows best, and it is 
 impossible for us to judge. But who is this?" 
 she exclaimed, anxiously peering up the dark 
 avenue. " Oh, it is my brother Mordaunt. 
 Mordaunt," she said, as the young man ap-
 
 36 
 
 proached us, " I have been apologizing to Mr. 
 West for what happened yesterday in yournamf 
 as well as my own." 
 
 " I am very, very glad to have the opportunity 
 of doing it in person," said he, courteously. " 1 
 only wish that I could see your sister and you! 
 father as well as yourself, to tell them how sorry 
 I am. I think you had better run up to thd 
 house, little one, for it's getting near tiffin time, 
 No don't you go, Mr. West. I want to have a 
 word with you." 
 
 Miss Heatherstone waved her hand to me 
 with a bright smile, and tripped off up the 
 avenue, while her brother unbolted the gate, 
 and, passing through, closed it again, locking it 
 upon the outside. 
 
 " I'll have a stroll down the road with you, if 
 you have no objection. Have a manilla." He 
 drew a couple of cheroots from his pocket and 
 handed one to me. " You'll find they are not 
 bad," he said. " I became a connoisseur in 
 tobacco when I was in India. Are you lit? 1 
 hope I am not interfering with your business in 
 coming along with you." 
 
 " Not at all," I answered. " I am very glad to 
 have your company." 
 
 ''I'll tell you a secret." said pay companion.
 
 37 
 
 " This is the first time that I have been outside 
 the grounds since we have been down here." 
 
 " And your sister?" 
 
 " She has never been out either," he answered. 
 " I have given the governor the slip to-day, but 
 he wouldn'i half like it if he knew. It's a whim 
 of his that we should keep ourselves entirely to 
 ourselves. At least some people would call it a 
 whim ; for My own part I have reason to believe 
 that he has solid grounds for all that he does 
 though perhaps in this matter he may be a little 
 too exacting." 
 
 " You must *urely find it very lonely," said I. 
 "Couldn't you manage to slip down at times and 
 have a smoke with me ? That house over yon- 
 der is Branksome/' 
 
 " Indeed you are very kind," he answered, with 
 sparkling eyes. " I should dearly like to run 
 over now and again. With the exception of 
 Israel Stakes, our old coachman and gardener, 
 I have not a soul that I can speak to." 
 
 " And your sister, she must feel it even more," 
 said I, thinking in my heart that my new 
 acquaintance made ratht/r too much of his own 
 troubles and too little of those of his companion. 
 
 "Yes; poor Gabriel feels it, no doubt," he 
 answered, carelessly ; " but ii's a more unnatural
 
 38 
 
 thing for a young man of my age to be cooped 
 up in this way than for a woman. Look at me 
 now. I am three-and-twenty next March, and 
 yet I have never been to a university, nor to a 
 school, for that matter. I am as complete an 
 ignoramus as any of these clodhoppers. It 
 seems strange to you, no doubt ; and yet it is so. 
 Now, don't you think I deserve a better fate ?" 
 He stopped as he spoke, and faced round to me, 
 throwing his palms forward in appeal. 
 
 As I looked at him, with the sun shining upon 
 his face, he certainly did seem a strange bird to 
 be cooped up in such a cage. Tall and muscular, 
 with a keen, dark face, and sharp, finely-cut 
 features, he might have stepped out of the can- 
 vas of Murillo or Velasquez. There was latent 
 energy and power in his firm-set mouth, his 
 square eyebrows, and the whole pose of his elas- 
 tic, well-knit figure. 
 
 " There is the learning to be got from books 
 and the learning to be got from experience," 
 said I, sententiously. " If you have less of your 
 share of the one, perhaps you have more of the 
 other. I cannot believe that you have spent all 
 your life in mere idleness and pleasure." 
 
 " Pleasure !" he cried. " Pleasure 1 Look at 
 this." He pulled off his hat, and I saw that his
 
 39 
 
 black hair was all flecked and dashed with 
 streaks of grey. " Do you imagine that this 
 came from pleasure ?" he asked, with a bitter 
 laugh. 
 
 " You must have had some great shock," I said, 
 astonished at the sight ; *' some terrible illness in 
 your youth. Or perhaps it arises from a more 
 chronic cause a constant, gnawing anxiety. I 
 have known men as young as you whose hair 
 was as gry." 
 
 " Poor devils!** he muttered ; " I pity them." 
 
 " If you can manage to slip down to Brank- 
 sorne at times,** said I, " perhaps you could 
 bring Miss Heatherstone with you. I know 
 that my father and my sister would be delighted 
 to see her, and a change, if only ior an hour or 
 two, might do her good." 
 
 "It would be rather hard for us both to get 
 ftway together," he answered. " However, if I 
 see a chance I shall bring her down. It might 
 be managed some afternoon, perhaps, for the old 
 man indulges in a siesta occasionally." We had 
 reached the head of the winding lane which 
 branches off from the high road and leads up to 
 the laird's house, so my companion pulled up. 
 " I must go back," he said, " or they will miss 
 ie. It's very kind of you, West, to take this
 
 40 
 
 interest in us. I'm very grateful to you, and so 
 will Gabriel be when she hears of your kind 
 invitation. It's a real heaping of coals of fire 
 after that infernal placard of my father's." 
 
 He shook my hand and set off down the road, 
 but he came running after me presently, calling 
 me to stop. " I was just thinking," he said, 
 " that you must consider us a great mystery up 
 there at Cloomber. I dare say you have come 
 to look upon it as a private lunatic asylum, and 
 I can't blame you- If you are interested in the 
 matter, I feel it is unfriendly upon my part not 
 to satisfy your curiosity, but I have promised 
 my father to be silent about it. And indeed, if 
 I were to tell you all that I know you might not 
 be very much the wiser after all. I would have 
 you understand this, however that my father is 
 as sane as you or I, and that he has very good 
 reasons for living the life which he does. I may 
 add that his wish to remain secluded does not 
 arise from any unworthy or dishonorable 
 motives, but merely from the instinct of self- 
 preservation." 
 
 " He is in danger, then !" I ejaculated. 
 
 " Yes; he is in constant danger." 
 
 " But why does he not apply to the magistrates 
 for protection ?" I asked. " If he is afraid of any
 
 41 
 
 one, he has only to name him and they will bind 
 him over to keep the peace." 
 
 " My dear West," said young Heatherstone, 
 " the danger with which my father is threatened 
 is one that cannot be averted by any human 
 intervention. It is none the less very real, and 
 possibly very imminent." 
 
 " You don't mean to assert that it is super- 
 natural," I said, incredulously. 
 
 " Well, hardly that, either," he answered with 
 hesitation. " But there," he continued, " I have 
 said rather more than I should, but I know that 
 you will not abuse my confidence. Good-bye." 
 He took to his heels and was soon out of my 
 sight, round a curve in the country road. 
 
 A danger which was real and imminent, not t3 
 be averted by human means and yet hardly 
 supernatural here was a conundrum indeed ! 
 I had come to look upon the inhabitants of the 
 Hall as mere eccentrics, but after what young 
 Mordaunt Heatherstone had just told me, 1 
 could no longer doubt that some dark and 
 sinister meaning underlay all their actions. The 
 more I pondered over the problem, the more 
 unanswerable did it appear, and yet I could not 
 get the matter out of my thoughts. The lonely, 
 isolated hall, and the strange, impending catas-
 
 42 
 
 trophe which hung over its inmates, appealed 
 forcibly to my imagination. All that evening, 
 and late into the night, I sat moodily by the fire, 
 pondering over all that I had heard, and revolv- 
 ing in my mind the various incidents which 
 might furnish me with some clue to the mystery.
 
 43 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 HOW FOUR OF US CAME TO BE UNDER THB 
 SHADOW OF CLOOMBER. 
 
 I TRUST that my readers will not set me down 
 as an inquisitive busybody when I say that as 
 the days and weeks went by I found my atten- 
 tion and my thoughts more and more attracted 
 to General Heatherstoneand the mystery which 
 surrounded him. It was in vain that I endeav- 
 ored by hard work and a strict attention to the 
 laird's affairs to direct my mind into some more 
 healthy channel. Do what I would, on land or 
 on the water, I would still find myself puzzling 
 over this one question, until it obtained such a 
 hold upon me that I felt that it was useless for 
 me to attempt to apply myself to anything until 
 I had come to some satisfactory solution of it. 
 I could never pass the dark line of five-foot 
 fencing and the great iron gate, with its massive 
 lock, without pausing and racking my brain as 
 to what the secret might be which was shut in 
 by that inscrutable barrier. Yet with all my
 
 44 
 
 conjectures and all my observations I could 
 never come to any conclusion which could for a 
 moment be accepted as an explanation of the 
 facts. 
 
 My sister had been out for a stroll one night, 
 visiting a sick peasant, or performing some 
 other of the numerous acts of charity by which 
 she had made herself beloved by the whole 
 countryside. "John," she said when she re- 
 turned, " have you not observed Cloomber Hall 
 at night?" 
 
 " No," I answered, laying down the book 
 which I was reading. " Not since that memor- 
 able evening when the general and Mr. McNeil 
 came over to make their inspection." 
 
 " Well, John, will you put your hat on and 
 take a little walk with me ?" I could see by 
 her manner that something had agitated or 
 frightened her. 
 
 " Why, bless the girl !' cried I, boisterously, 
 " what is the matter? The old hall has not gone 
 on fire, surely ? You look as grave as if all 
 Wigtown were in a blaze." 
 
 " Not quite so bad as that," she said, smiling. 
 " But do come out, Jack. I should very much 
 like you to see it." 
 
 I had always refrained from saying anything
 
 45 
 
 which might alarm my sister, so that she knew 
 nothing of the interest which our neighbors' 
 doings had for me. At her request I took my 
 hat and followed her out into the darkness. She 
 led the way along a little footpath over the 
 moor, which brought us to some rising ground, 
 from which we could look down upon the Hall 
 without our view being obstructed by any of the 
 fir-trees which had been planted round it. 
 " Look at that," said my sister, pausing at the 
 summit of this little eminence. 
 
 Cloomber lay beneath us in a blaze of light. 
 In the lower floors the shutters obscured the 
 illumination, but above, from the broad windows 
 of the second story to the thin slits at the sum. 
 mit of the tower there was not a chink or an 
 aperture which did not send forth a stream of 
 radiance. So dazzling was the effect that for a 
 moment I was persuaded that the house was on 
 fire, but the steadiness and clearness of the light 
 soon freed me from that apprehension. It was 
 clearly the result of ro.a^y lamps placed syste- 
 matically all over the bu/Iding. It added to the 
 strange effect that all tr.ese brilliantly illuminated 
 rooms were apparently untenanted, and some of 
 them, as far as we could judge, were not even fur- 
 nished. Through the whole great house there
 
 4 6 
 
 was no sign of movement or of life nothing but 
 the clear, unwinking flood of yellow light. I 
 was still lost in wonder at the sight when I heard 
 a short, quick sob at my side. 
 
 " What is it, Esther, dear ?" I asked, looking 
 down at my companion. 
 
 " I feel so frightened. Oh, John, John, take 
 me home ; I feel so frightened !" She clung to 
 my arm, and pulled at my coat in a perfect 
 frenzy of fear. 
 
 " It's all safe, darling," I said, soothingly. 
 " There is nothing to fear. What has upset you 
 
 80?" 
 
 " I am afraid of them, John; I am afraid of the 
 Heatherstones. Why is their house lit up like 
 this every night ? I have heard from others that 
 it is always so. And why does the old man run 
 like a frightened hare if any one comes upon 
 him. There is something wrong about it, John, 
 and it frightens me." 
 
 I pacified her as welt as I could, and led her 
 home with me, where I took care that she should 
 have some hot port negus before going to bed. 
 I avoided the subject of the Heatherstones for 
 fear of exciting her, and she did not recur to it 
 of her own accord. I was convinced, however, 
 from what I had heard from her that she had for
 
 47 
 
 some time back been making her own observa- 
 tions upon our neighbors, and that in doing so she 
 had put a considerable strain upon her nerves. I 
 could see that the mere fact of the Hall being 
 illuminated at night was not enough to account 
 for her extreme agitation, and that it must have 
 derived its importance in her eyes from being 
 one in a chain of incidents, all of which had left a 
 weird or unpleasant impression upon her mind. 
 That was the conclusion which I came to at the 
 time, and I have reason to know now that I was 
 right, and that my sister had even more cause 
 than I had myself for believing that there was 
 something uncanny about the tenants of Cloom- 
 ber. 
 
 Our interest in the matter may have arisen at 
 first from nothing higher than curiosity ; but 
 events soon took a turn which associated us 
 more closely with the fortunes of the Heather- 
 stone family. Mordaunt had taken advantage 
 of my invitation to come down to the laird's 
 house, and on several occasions he brought with 
 him his beautiful sister. The four of us would 
 wander over the moors together ; or, perhaps, if 
 the day were fine, set sail upon our little skiff 
 and stand off into the Irish Sea. On such 
 excursions the brother and sister would be as
 
 4 8 
 
 merry and as happy as two children. It was a 
 keen pleasure to them to escape from their dull 
 fortress, and to see, if only for a few hours, 
 friendly and sympathetic faces round them. 
 There could be but one result when four young 
 people were brought together in sweet, forbid- 
 den intercouse. Acquaintanceship warmed into 
 friendship, and friendship flamed suddenly into 
 love. Gabriel sits beside me now as I write, and 
 she agrees with me that, dear as is the subject to 
 ourselves, the whole story of our mutual affec- 
 tion is of too personal a nature to be more than 
 touched upon in this statement. Suffice it to 
 ?ay that, within a few weeks of our first meeting, 
 Mordaunt Heatherstone had won the heart of 
 my dear sister, and Gabriel had given me that 
 pledge which death itselt will not be able to 
 break. 
 
 I have alluded in this brief way to the double 
 tie which sprang up between the two families, 
 because I have no wish that this narrative should 
 degenerate into anything approaching to 
 romance, or that I should lose the thread of the 
 facts which I have set myself to chronicle. These 
 are connected with General Heatherstone and 
 only indirectly with my own personal history. 
 It is enough if I say that after our engagement
 
 49 
 
 the visits to Bntnksome became more frequent, 
 and that our friends were able sometimes to 
 spend a whole day with us when business had 
 called the general to Wigtown, or when his gout 
 confined him to his room. As to our good 
 father, he was ever ready to greet us with many 
 small jests appropriate to the occasion ; for we 
 had no secrets from him, and he already looked 
 upon us all as his children. 
 
 There were times when on account of some 
 peculiarly dark or restless fit of the general's it 
 was impossible for weeks on end for either 
 Gabriel or Mordaunt to get away from the 
 grounds. The old man would even stand on 
 guard at the avenue gate, or pace up and down 
 the drive as though he suspected that attempts 
 had been made to penetrate his seclusion. Pass- 
 ing of an evening I have seen his dark, grim 
 figure flitting about in the shadow of the trees, 
 or caught a glimpse of his hard, angular face 
 peering out at me from behind the bars. My 
 heart would often sadden for him as I noticed his 
 uncouth, nervous movements, his furtive glances 
 and twitching features. Who would have be- 
 lieved that this slinking, cowering creature had 
 once been a dashing officer, who had fought the 
 battles pf his country and had w*i the plm of
 
 50 
 
 bravery among the host of brave men around 
 him ? 
 
 In spite of the old soldier's vigilance, we man- 
 aged to hold communication with our friends. 
 Immediately behind the Hall there was a spot 
 where the fencing had been so carelessly erected 
 that two of the rails could be removed without 
 difficulty, leaving a broad gap, which gave us 
 the opportunity for many a stolen interview, 
 though they were necessarily short, for the gen- 
 eral's movements were erratic, and no part of 
 the grounds was secure from his visitations. 
 
 How vividly one of these hurried meetings 
 rises before me ! It stands out clear, peaceful 
 and distinct amid the wild, mysterious incidents 
 which were destined to lead up to the terrible 
 catastrophe which has cast a shade over our 
 lives. I can remember that as I walked through 
 the fields the grass was damp with the rain of 
 the morning, and the air was heavy with the 
 smell of the fresh-turned earth. Gabriel was 
 waiting for me under the hawthorn tree outside 
 the gap, and we stood hand in hand looking 
 down at the long sweep of moorland, and at the 
 broad, blue channel which encircled it with its 
 fringe of foam. Far away in the northwest the 
 sun glinted upon the high peak of Mount Thros-
 
 ton. From where we stood we eoukl see the 
 smoke of the steamers as they ploughed along 
 the busy water-way which leads to Belfast. 
 
 " Is it not magnificent?" Gabriel cried, clasp- 
 ing her hands round my arm. "Ah, John, why 
 are we not free to sail away over these waves 
 together, and leave all our troubles behind us on 
 the shore?" 
 
 " And what are the troubles which you would 
 leave behind you, dear one ?" I asked. " May I 
 not know them, and help you to bear them?" 
 
 " I have no secrets from you, John," she 
 answered. " Our chief trouble is, as you may 
 guess, our poor father's strange behavior. Is it 
 not a sad thing for all of us that a man who has 
 played such a distinguished part in the world 
 should skulk from one obscure corner of the 
 country to another, and should defend him- 
 self with locks and barriers as though he were 
 a common thief flying from justice ? This 
 is a trouble, John, which it is out of your power 
 to alleviate." 
 
 " But why does he do it, Gabriel ?" I asked. 
 
 " I cannot tell," she answered frankly. " I 
 know only that he imagines some deadly danger 
 to be hanging over his head, and that this dan- 
 ger was incurred by him during his stay ip
 
 5* 
 
 India. What its nature may be I have no more 
 idea than you have." 
 
 " Then your brother has," I remarked. " I am 
 sure from the way in which he spoke to me about 
 it one day that he knows what it is, and that he 
 looks upon it as real." 
 
 " Yes, he knows, and so does my mother," she 
 answered ; " but they have always kept it secret 
 from me. My poor father is very excited at 
 present. Day and night he is in an agony of 
 apprehension, but it will soon be the 5th of 
 October, and after that he will be at peace." 
 
 "How do you know that?" I asked in sur- 
 prise. 
 
 " By experience," said she, gravely. " On the 
 fifth of October these fears of his come to a crisis. 
 For years back he has been in the habit of lock- 
 ing Mordaunt and myself up in our rooms on 
 that date, so that we have no idea what occurs ; 
 but we have always found that he has been 
 much relieved afterwards, and has continued to 
 be comparatively in peace until that day began 
 to draw round again." 
 
 " Then you have only ten days or so to wait," 
 I remarked, for September is drawing to a close. 
 " By the way, dearest, why is it that you light 
 up all your rooms at nighf c'"'
 
 53 
 
 " You have noticed it, then ?" she said. It 
 comes also from my father's fears. He does not 
 like to have one dark corner in the whole house. 
 He walks about a good deal at night, and in- 
 spects everything, from the attics right down to 
 the cellars. He has large lamps in every room 
 and corridor, even the empty ones, and he or- 
 ders the servants to light them all at dusk." 
 
 " I am rather surprised that you manage to 
 keep your servants," I said, laughing. " The 
 maids in these parts are a superstitious class, 
 and their imaginations are easily excited by any- 
 thing which they don't understand." 
 
 " The cook and both housemaids are from 
 London, and are used to our ways. We pay 
 them on a very high scale to make up for any 
 inconvenience to which they may be put. Israel 
 Stakes, the coachman, is the only one who comes 
 from this part of the country, and he seems to be 
 a stolid, honest fellow, who is not easily scared." 
 
 " Poor fittle girl," I exclaimed, looking down 
 at the slim, graceful figure by my side. " This 
 is no atmosphere for you to live in. Why will 
 you not let me rescue you from it? Why won't 
 you allow me to go straight and ask the general 
 for your hand ? At the worst he could only re- 
 fuse."
 
 54 
 
 She turned quite haggard and pale at the very 
 thought. "For God's sake, John," she cried, 
 earnestly, " do nothing of the kind. He would 
 whip us all away in the dead of the night, and 
 within a week we should be settling down again 
 in some wilderness where we might never have 
 a chance of seeing or hearing from you again. 
 Besides, he never would forgive us for ventur- 
 ing out of the grounds." 
 
 " I don't think that he is a hard-hearted man," 
 I remarked. " I have seen a kindly look in his 
 eyes, for all his stern face." 
 
 " He can be the kindest of fathers," she an- 
 swered. " But he is terrible when opposed or 
 thwarted. You have never seen him so, and I 
 trust you never will. It was that strength of 
 will and impatience of opposition which made 
 him such a splendid officer. I assure you that 
 in India every one thought a great deal of him. 
 The soldiers were afraid of him, but they would 
 have followed him anywhere." 
 
 " And had he these nervous attacks then ?" 
 
 " Occasionally ; but not nearly so acutely. 
 He seems to think that the danger whatever it 
 may be becomes more imminent every year. 
 Oh, John, it is terrible to be waiting like this 
 >rith a sword over our heads and all the more
 
 55 
 
 terrible to me since 1 have no idea where the 
 blow is to come from." 
 
 " Dear Gabriel," I said, taking her hand and 
 drawing her to my side, " look over all this 
 pleasant country-side and the broad, blue sea 
 Is it not all peaceful and beautiful? In these 
 cottages with their red-tiled roofs peeping out 
 from the grey moor, there live none but simple, 
 God-fearing men, who toil hard at their crofts 
 and bear enmity to no man. Within seven miles 
 of us is a large town, with every civilized appli- 
 ance for the preservation of order. Ten miles 
 further there is a garrison quartered, and a tel- 
 egram would at any time bring down a company 
 of soldiers, Now, I ask you, dear, in the name 
 of common sense, what conceivable danger 
 could threaten you in this secluded neighbor- 
 hood with the means of help so near? You as- 
 sure me that the peril is not connected with 
 your father's health ?" 
 
 " No, I am sure of that. It is true that Dr. 
 Easterling, of Stranraer, has been over to see 
 him once or twice, but that was merely for some 
 small indisposition. I can assure you that the 
 danger is not to be looked for in that direc- 
 tion." 
 
 * Then I can assure you? said I, laughing,
 
 56 
 
 " that there is no danger at all. It must be some 
 strange monomania or hallucination. No other 
 hypothesis will cover the facts." 
 
 " Would my father's monomania account for 
 the fact of my brother's hair being turned 
 grey and my mother wasting away to a mere 
 shadow?" 
 
 " Undoubtedly," I answered. " The long-con- 
 tinued worry of the general's restlessness and 
 irritability would produce those effects on sensi- 
 tive natures." 
 
 " No, no," said she, shaking her head sadly ; 
 " I have been exposed to his restlessness and ir- 
 ritability, but they have had no such effect upon 
 me. The difference between us lies in the fact 
 that they know this awful secret and we do 
 not." 
 
 " My dear girl," said I, " the days of family 
 apparitions and that kind of thing are gone. 
 Nobody is haunted nowadays, so we can put that 
 supposition out of the question. Having done so, 
 what remains? There is absolutely no other 
 theory which could even be suggested. Believe 
 me, the whole mystery is that the heat of India 
 has been too much for your poor father's 
 brain." 
 
 What she would have answered I cannot tell,
 
 for at that moment she gave a start as if some 
 sound had fallen upon her ear. As she looked 
 round apprehensively I suddenly saw her fea- 
 tures become rigid and her eyes fixed and di- 
 lated. Following the direction of her gaze, I 
 felt a sudden thrill of fear pass through me as I 
 perceived a human face surveying us from be- 
 hind one of the trees a face every feature of 
 which was distorted by the most malignant 
 hatred and anger. Finding himself observed he 
 stepped out and advanced towards us, when I saw 
 it was none other than the general himself. His 
 beard was all a-bristle with fury, and his deep- 
 set eyes glowed from under their heavily-veined 
 lids with a most sinister and demoniacal bright*
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I 
 
 MOW I CAME TO BE ENLISTED AS ONE OF THB 
 GARRISON OF CLOOMBER. 
 
 " To your room, girl !" he cried in a hoarse, 
 harsh voice, stepping in between us and pointing 
 authoritatively towards the house. He waited 
 until Gabriel, with a last frightened glance at 
 me, had passed through the gap, and then he 
 turned upon me with an expression so murder- 
 ous that I stepped back a pace or two, and tight* 
 ened my grasp upon my oak stick. 
 
 " You you " he sputtered, with his hand up 
 to his throat, as though his fury were choking 
 him. " You have dared to intrude upon my 
 privacy ! Do you think I built this fence that all 
 the vermin in the country might congregate 
 round it 1 Oh, you have been very near your 
 death, my fine fellow ! You will never be nearer 
 until your time comes. Look at this!" He 
 pulled a squat, thick pistol out of his bosom. 
 * If you had passed through that gap and set 
 foot on my land I'd have let daylight into you.
 
 59 
 
 I'll have no vagabonds here ! I know how to 
 treat gentry of that sort, whether their faces are 
 black or white. 
 
 " Sir," said I, " I meant no harm by coming 
 here, and I do not know how I have deserved 
 this extraordinary outburst. Allow me to ob- 
 serve, however, that you are still covering me 
 with your pistol, and that, as your hand is rather 
 tremulous, it is more than possible that it may 
 g*o off. If you don't turn the muzzle down i 
 shall be compelled in self-defence to strike you 
 over the wrist with my stick." 
 
 " What the devil brought you here, then ?" 
 he asked, in a more composed voice, putting his 
 weapon back into his bosom. " Can't a gentle- 
 man live quietly without your coming to peep 
 and pry ? Have you no business of your own to 
 look after, eh? And my daughter? how came 
 you to know anything of her ? and what have 
 you been trying to squeeze out of her? it 
 wasn't chance that brought you here." 
 
 " No," said I, boldly, " it was not chance 
 which brought me here. I have had several 
 opportunities of seeing your daughter and of 
 appreciating her many noble qualities. We are 
 engaged to be married to each other, and Icame 
 up with the express intention of seeing her."
 
 6o 
 
 Instead of blazing into a fury, as I had 
 expected, the general gave a long whistle ot 
 astonishment, and then leaned up against the 
 railings, laughing softly to himself. 
 
 " English terriers are fond of playing with 
 worms," he remarked at last. " When we used 
 to bring them out to India they used to trot off 
 into the jungle and begin sniffing at what they 
 imagined to be worms there. But the worm 
 turned out to be a venomous snake, and so poor 
 doggy paid the penalty. I think you'll find 
 yourself in a somewhat analogous position if YOU 
 don't look out." 
 
 " You surely don't mean to cast an aspersion 
 upon your own daughter?" I said, .flushing with 
 indignation. 
 
 " Oh, Gabriel is all right," he answered, care- 
 lessly. " Our family is not exactly one, however, 
 which I should recommend a young tellow to 
 marry into. And pray how is it that I was not 
 informed of this snug little arrangement of 
 yours ?'* 
 
 " We were afraid, sir, that you might separ- 
 ate us," I replied, feeling that perfect candor 
 was the best policy under the circumstances. 
 ' It is possible that we were mistaken. Before 
 coming to any fina' decision I implore you to
 
 01 
 
 remember that the happiness of both of us is at 
 stake. It is in your power to divide our bodies, 
 but our souls shall be forever united." 
 
 " My good fellow," said the general, in a not 
 unkindly tone, " you don't know what you are 
 asking for. There is a gulf between you and any 
 one of the blood of Heatherstone which can 
 never be bridged over." All trace of anger had 
 Vanished now from his manner, and given place 
 to an air of somewhat contemptuous amuse. 
 ment. 
 
 My family pride took fire at his words. " The 
 gulf may be less than you imagine," I said, 
 coldly. " We are not clodhoppers because we 
 live in this out-of-the-way place. I am of noble 
 descent on one side, and my mother was a 
 Buchan of Buchan. I assure you that there is 
 no such disparity between us as you seem to 
 Imagine." 
 
 " You misunderstand me," the general an- 
 Bwered. "It is on our side that the disparity 
 lies. There are reasons why my daughter 
 Gabriel should live and die single. It would 
 not be to your advantage to marry her." 
 
 " But surely, sir," I persisted, " I am the best 
 judge of my own interests and advantages. 
 Since you take this ground all becomes easy;
 
 62 
 
 for I do assure you that the one interest which 
 overrides all others is that I should have the 
 woman I love for my wife. If this is your only 
 objection to our match, you may surely give us 
 your consent, for any danger or trial which I may 
 incur in marrying Gabriel will not weigh with 
 me one featherweight." 
 
 " Here's a young bantam !" exclaimed the old 
 soldier, smiling at my warmth. " It's easy to 
 defy danger when you don't know what the 
 danger is." 
 
 " What is it, then ?" I asked, hotly. " There is 
 no earthly peril that will drive me from Gabriel's 
 side. Let me know what it is and test me." 
 
 " No, no. That would never do," he answered 
 with a sigh ; and then, thoughtfully, as if speak- 
 ing his mind aloud: "He has plenty of pluck, 
 and is a well-grown lad, too. We might do 
 worse than make use of him." He went on 
 I mumbling to himself with a vacant stare in his 
 1 eyes as if he had forgotten my presence. 
 
 "Look here, West," he said, presently. 
 " You'll excuse me if I spoke hastily a little time 
 ago. It is the second time that I have had 
 occasion to apologize to you for the same 
 offense. It shan't occur again. I am rather 
 over-particular, uo doubt, in my desire for com.
 
 63 
 
 plete isolation; but I have good reasons fof 
 insisting on the point. Rightly or wrongly, I 
 have got it into my head that some day there 
 might be an organized raid upon my grounds. 
 If anything of the sort should occur I suppose I 
 might reckon upon your assistance?" 
 
 " With all my heart." 
 
 " So that if ever you got a message such as 
 'Come up,' or even simply 'Cloomber!' you 
 would know that it was an appeal for help and 
 would hurry up immediately, even if it were in 
 the dead of the night ?" 
 
 " Most certainly I should," I answered. " But 
 might I ask you what the nature of the danger 
 is which you apprehend?" 
 
 " There would be nothing gained by your 
 knowing. Indeed, you would hardly under- 
 stand it if I told you. I must bid you good-day 
 now, for I have stayed with you too long. Re. 
 member, I count upon you as one of the Cloom. 
 ber garrison now." 
 
 " One other thing, sir," I said, hurriedly, for 
 he was turning away ; " I hope that you will not 
 be angry with your daughter for anything which 
 I have told you. It was for my sake that she 
 kept it all secret from you." 
 
 41 All right," he said *h his cold, inscrutable
 
 6 4 
 
 smile. " I am not such an ogre in the bosom of 
 my family as you seem to think. As to this 
 marriage question, I should advise you as a 
 friend to let it drop altogether, but if that is im- 
 possible I must insist that it stand over com- 
 pletely for the present. It is impossible to say 
 what unexpected turn events may take. Good- 
 bye 1" He plunged into the wood and was 
 quickly out of sight among the dense planta- 
 tion. 
 
 Thus ended this extraordinary interview, in 
 which this strange man had begun by pointing 
 a loaded pistol at my breast and had ended by 
 partially acknowledging the possibility of my 
 becoming his future son-in-law. I hardly knew 
 whether to be cast down or elated over it. On 
 the one hand, he was likely, by keeping a closer 
 watch over his daughter, to prevent us from 
 communicating as freely as we had done hith- 
 erto. Against this there was the advantage of 
 having obtained an implied consent to the 
 renewal of my suit at some future date. On the 
 whole, I came to the conclusion, as I walked 
 thoughtfully home, that I had improved my posi- 
 tion by the incident. 
 
 But this danger this shadowy, unspeakable 
 danger which appeared to rise up at very
 
 turn, and to hang day and night over the towers 
 of Cloomber ! Rack my brain as I would I 
 could not conjure up any solution to the prob- 
 lem which was not puerile and inadequate. One 
 fact struck me as being significant. Both the 
 father and the son had assured me, independently 
 of each other, that if I were told whai the peril 
 was, I would hardly realize its significance. 
 How strange and bizarre must the fear be 
 which can scarce be expressed in intelligible 
 language. I held up my hand in the darkness 
 before I turned to sleep that night, and I swore 
 that no power of man or devil should ever 
 weaken my love for the woman whose pure heart 
 I had had the good fortune to win.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 OF CORPORAL RUFUS SMITH AND HIS COMING TC 
 CLOOMBER. 
 
 IN making this statement I have purposel) 
 couched it in bald and simple language, for fear 
 I should be accused of coloring my narrative for 
 the sake of effect. If, however, I have told my 
 story with any approach to realism, the reader 
 will understand me when I say that by this time 
 the succession of dramatic incidents which had 
 occurred had arrested my attention and excited 
 my imagination to the exclusion of all minor 
 topics. How could I plod through the dull 
 routine of an agent's work, or interest myself in 
 the thatch of this tenant's bothy or the sails of 
 that one's boat, when my mind was taken up by 
 the chain of events which I have described, and 
 was still busy seeking an explanation for them? 
 Go where I would over the country-side I could 
 see the square, white tower shooting out from 
 among the trees, and beneath that tower this 
 ill-fated family were watching and waiting, wait- 
 ing and watching and for what ? That was still
 
 the question which stood like an impassable 
 barrier at the end of every train of thought. 
 Regarded merely as an abstract problem, this 
 mystery of the Heatherstone family had a lurid 
 fascination about it, but when the woman whom 
 I loved a thousandfold better than I did myself 
 proved to be so deeply interested in the solution, 
 I felt that it was impossible to turn my thoughts 
 to anything else until it had been finally cleared 
 up. 
 
 My good father had received a letter from the 
 laird, dated from Naples, which told us that he 
 had derived much benefit from the change, and 
 that he had no intention of returning to Scotland 
 for some time. This was satisfactory to all of 
 us, for my father had found Branksome such au 
 excellent place for study that it would have been 
 a sore trial to him to return to the noise and 
 tumult of a city. As to my dear sister and my- 
 self, there were, as I have shown, stronger 
 reasons still to make us love the Wigtownshire 
 moors. 
 
 In spite of my interview with the general or 
 perhaps I might say on account of it I took 
 occasion at least twice a day to walk towards 
 Cloomber and satisfy myself that all was well 
 there. He had begun by resenting my intrusion,
 
 68 
 
 but he had ended by taking me into a sort of 
 half confidence, and even by asking my assist- 
 ance, so I felt that I stood upon a different foot- 
 ing with him than I had done formerly, and that 
 he was less likely to be annoyed by my presence. 
 Indeed, I met him pacing round the inclosure a 
 few days afterwards, and his manner towards me 
 was civil, though he made no allusion to our 
 former conversation. He appeared to be still in 
 an extreme state of nervousness, starting from 
 time to time, and gazing furtively about him. I 
 hoped that his daughter was right in naming the 
 fifth of October as the turning-point of his com- 
 plaint, for it was evident to me, as I looked at 
 his gleaming eyes and quivering hands, that a 
 man could not live long in such a state of nervous 
 tension. 
 
 I found on examination that he had had the 
 loose rails securely fastened so as to block up 
 our former trysting-place, and though I prowled 
 round the whole long line of fencing, I was 
 unable to find any other place where an entrance 
 could be effected. Here and there between 
 chinks of the barrier I could catch glimpses of 
 the Hall, and once I saw a rough-looking, middle- 
 aged man standing at a window at the lower 
 floor, whom I supposed to be Israel Stakes, the
 
 coachman. There was no sign, however, ot 
 Gabriel or of Mordaunt, and their absence 
 alarmed me. I was convinced that, unless they 
 were under some restraint, they would have 
 managed to communicate with my sister or my- 
 self. My fears became more and more acute as 
 day followed drfy without our seeing or hearing 
 anything of them. 
 
 One morning it was the second day of Octo- 
 ber I was walking towards the Hall, hoping 
 that I might be fortunate enough to learn some 
 news of my darling, when I observed a man 
 perched upon a stone at the side of the road. 
 As I came nearer to him I could see that he was 
 a stranger, and from his dusty clothes and dilap- 
 idated appearance he seemed to have come from 
 a distance. He had a great hunch of bread on 
 his knee and a clasp knife in his hand, but he 
 had apparently just finished his breakfast, for he 
 brushed the crumbs off his lap and rose to his 
 feet when he perceived me. Noticing the great 
 height of the fellow, and that he still held his 
 weapon, I kept well to the other side of the road, 
 for I knew that destitution makes men desperate 
 and that the chain which glittered on my waist- 
 coat might be too great a temptation to him upon 
 this lonely highway. I was confirmed in my
 
 TO 
 
 fears when I saw him step out into the centre of 
 the road and bar my progress. 
 
 " Well, my lad," I said, affecting an ease which 
 I by no means felt, " what can I do for you this 
 morning?" 
 
 The fellow's face was the color of mahogany 
 with exposure to the weather, and he had a 
 deep scar from the corner of his mouth to his 
 ear, which by no means improved his appear- 
 ance. His hair was grizzled, but his figure was 
 stalwart, and his fur cap was cocked on one side 
 so as to give him a rakish, semi-military appear- 
 ance. Altogether, he gave me the impression of 
 being one of the most dangerous types of tramp 
 that I had ever fallen in with. 
 
 Instead of replying to my question he eyed 
 me for some time in silence, with sullen, yellow- 
 shot eyes, and then closed his knife with a loud 
 snick. "You're not a beak," he said; "too 
 young for that, I guess. They had me in chokey 
 at Paisley, and they had me in chokey at Wig- 
 town, but by the living thunder if another of 
 them lays a hand on me I'll make him remem- 
 ber Corporai Rufus Smith ! It's a darned fine 
 country this, where they won't give a man work 
 and then lay him by the heels for having no vis- 
 ible means of subsistence. *
 
 71 
 
 " I am sorry to see an old soldier so reduced,** 
 said I. " What corps did you serve in ?'* 
 
 "H Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. Bad 
 cess to the service and every one in it ! Here I 
 am nigh sixty years of age, with a beggarly pen- 
 sion of thirty-eight pound ten not enough to 
 keep me in beer and baccy." 
 
 " I should have thought thirty-eight pound ten 
 a year would have been a nice help to you in 
 your old age," I remarked. 
 
 "Would you though?" he answered with a 
 sneer, pushing his weather-beaten face forward 
 until it was within a foot of my own. " How 
 much d'ye think that slash with a tulwar is 
 worth ? and my foot with all the bones rattling 
 about like a bagful of dice? What's that worth, 
 eh ? And a liver like a sponge, and ague when- 
 ever the wind comes round to the east what's 
 the market value of that ? Would you take the 
 lot for a dirty forty pound a year would you 
 now ?" 
 
 " We are poor folk in this part of the country," 
 I answered. " You would pass for a rich man 
 down here." 
 
 "They are simple folk and they have simple 
 tastes," said he, drawing a black pipe from his 
 pocket and stuffing it with tobacco. " I know
 
 72 
 
 what good living is, and while I have a shilling 
 in my pocket I like to spend it as a shilling should 
 be spent. I've fought for my country, and my 
 country has done darned little for me. I'll go to 
 the Rooshians, so help me ! I could show them 
 how to cross the Himalayas, so that it would 
 puzzle either Afghans or British to stop 'em. 
 What's that secret worth in St. Petersburg, I 
 wonder !" 
 
 " I'm ashamed to hear an old soldier speak so, 
 even in jest," said I sternly. 
 
 "Jest, indeed!" he cried, with a great oath. 
 " I'd have done it years ago, if the Rooshians 
 had been game to take it up. Skobeloff was the 
 best of the bunch, but he's been snuffed out. 
 However, that's neither here nor there. What 
 I want to ask you is whether you've ever 
 heard anything in this quarter of a man called 
 Heatherstone, the same who used to be colonel 
 of the 4ist Bengaless? They told me at Wig- 
 town that he lived somewhere down this way." 
 
 " He lives in that large house over there," 
 said I, pointing to Cloomber Tower. "You'll 
 find the avenue gate a little way down the road, 
 but the general isn't over fond of visitors." 
 
 The last part of my speech was lost upon 
 Corporal Rufus Smith for the instant that I
 
 pointed out the gate he set off hopping down the 
 road. His mode of progression was the most 
 singular which I have ever seen, for he would 
 only put his right foot to the ground once in 
 every half-dozen strides, while he worked so, 
 hard and attained such a momentum with the 
 other limb that he got over the ground at an 
 astonishing speed. I was so surprised that I 
 stood in the roadway gazing after his hulking 
 figure until the thought suddenly struck me that 
 some serious result might come from a meeting 
 between a man of such blunt speech and the 
 choleric hot-headed general. I therefore fol- 
 lowed him as he hopped along like some great, 
 clumsy bird, and overtook him at the avenue 
 gate, where he stood grasping the ironwork and 
 peering through at the dark carriage drive 
 beyond. 
 
 " He's a sly old fox,** he said, looking round at 
 me and nodding his head in the direction of the 
 Hall. " He's a deep old dog. And that's his 
 bungalow, is it, among the trees?" 
 
 " That is his house," I answered ; " but I 
 should advise you to keep a more civil tongue 
 in your head if you intend to speak with the 
 general. He is not a man to stand any non- 
 sense."
 
 94 
 
 " Right you are. He was always a hard nut 
 to crack. But isn't this him coming down the 
 avenue ?" 
 
 I looked through the gate and saw that it was 
 indeed the general, who having either seen us or 
 been attracted by our voices, was hurrying 
 down towards us. As he advanced he would 
 stop from time to time and peer at us through 
 the dark shadow thrown by the trees, as if he 
 were irresolute whether to come on or no. 
 
 " He's reconnoitering I" whispered my com- 
 panion with a hoarse chuckle. " He's afraid 
 and I know what he's afraid of. He won't ba 
 caught in a trap if he can help it, the old un J 
 He's about as fly as they make 'em, you bet !" 
 Then suddenly standing on his tiptoes and wav- 
 ing his hand through the bars of the gate, he 
 shouted at the top of his voice, " Come on, my 
 gallant commandant 1 Come on! The coast's 
 clear, and no enemy in sight." 
 
 This familiar address had the effect of reassur. 
 ing the general, for he came right for us, though 
 1 could tell by his heightened color that his 
 temper was at boiling point. " What, you here, 
 Mr. West?" he said, as his eye fell upon me. 
 " What is it you want, and why have you 
 brought this fellow with you ?"
 
 75 
 
 " I have not brought him with me, sir,** ) 
 answered, feeling rather disgusted at being 
 made responsible for the presence of the disrep 
 utable-looking vagabond beside me. " I found 
 him on the road here, and he desired to b< 
 directed to you, so I showed him the way. 1 
 know nothing of him myself." 
 
 "What do you want with me, then?" th 
 general asked sternly, turning to my compan- 
 ion. 
 
 " If you please, sir," said the ex-corporal, 
 speaking in a whining voice, and touching his 
 moleskin cap with a humility which contrasted 
 strangely with the previous rough independence 
 of his bearing, " I'm an old gunner in the Queen's 
 service, sir, and knowing your name by hearing 
 it in India I thought that maybe you would 
 take me as your groom or gardener, or give me 
 any other place as happened to be vacant." 
 
 " I am sorry that I cannot do anything for you, 
 my man," the old soldier answered, impassively. 
 
 "Then you'll give me a little just to help me 
 on my way, sir," said the cringing mendicant. 
 " You won't see an old comrade go to the bad 
 for the sake of a few rupees. I was with Sale's 
 brigade in the Passes, sir, and I was at the second 
 taking of CabuL"
 
 General Heatherstone looked keenly at the 
 supplicant, but was silent to his appeal. 
 
 " I was in Ghuznee with you when the walls 
 were all shook down by A* earthquake, and 
 when we found forty thousand Afghans within 
 gunshot of us. You ask me about it, and you'll 
 see whether I'm lying or not. We went through 
 all this when we were young, and now that we 
 are old you are to live in a fine bungalow, and 
 I am to starve by the roadside. It don't seem 
 to me to be fair." 
 
 " You are an impertinent scoundrel," said the 
 general. " If you had been a good soldier you 
 would never need to ask for help. I shall not 
 give you a farthing." 
 
 41 One word more, sir," cried the tramp, for 
 the other was turning away ; " I've been in the 
 Tarada Pass." 
 
 The old soilder sprang round as if the words 
 had been a pistol-shot. " What what d'ye 
 mean?" he stammered. 
 
 " I've been in the Tarada Pass, sir, and I 
 knew a man there called Ghoolab Shah." 
 , These last words were hissed out in an under- 
 tone, and a malicious grin overspread the face of 
 the speaker. 
 
 Their effect upon the general was extraordin-
 
 77 
 
 ary. He fairly staggered back from the gate, 
 way, and his yellow countenance blanched to a 
 livid, mottled grey. For a moment he was too 
 overcome to speak. At last he gasped out, 
 " Ghoolab Shah ! who are you who know 
 Ghoolab Shah ?" 
 
 "Take another look," said the tramp; "your 
 sight is not as keen as it was forty years ago." 
 
 The general took a long, earnest look at the un- 
 kempt wanderer in front of him, and as he gazed 
 I saw the light of recognition spring up in his 
 eyes. " God bless my soul !" he cried. " Why, 
 it's Corporal Rufus Smith." 
 
 "You've come on it at last," said the other, 
 chuckling to himself. " I was wondering how 
 long it would be before you knew me. And first 
 of all just unlock this gate, will you? It's hard 
 to talk through a grating. It's too much like 
 ten minutes with a visitor in the cells." 
 
 The general, whose face still bore evidences of 
 his agitation, undid the bolts with nervous, trem- 
 bling fingers. The recognition of Corporal 
 Rufus Smith had, I fancied, been a relief to him, 
 and yet he plainly showed by his manner that he 
 regarded his presence as by no means an un- 
 mixed blessing. 
 
 " Why, corporal," he said, as the gate swung
 
 78 
 
 open, " I have often wondered whether you wero 
 dead or alive, but I never expected to see you 
 again. How have you been all these long 
 years ?" 
 
 "How have I been?" the corporal answered 
 gruffly. " Why I have been drunk for the most 
 part. When I draw my money I lay it out in 
 liquor, and as long as that lasts I get some peace 
 in life. When I'm cleaned out I go upon a 
 tramp, partly in the hope of picking up the price 
 of a dram, and partly in order to look for you." 
 
 " You'll excuse us talking about these private 
 matters, West," the general said, looking round 
 at me, for I was beginning to move away. 
 " Don't leave us. You know something of this 
 matter already, and may find yourself entirely in 
 the swim with us some of these days." 
 
 Corporal Rufus Smith looked round at me in 
 blank astonishment. " In the swim with us !'* 
 he said. " However did he get there?" 
 
 " Voluntarily, voluntarily," the general ex- 
 plained, hurriedly sinking his voice. " He isa 
 neighbor of mine, and he has volunteered his 
 help in case I should ever need it." 
 
 This explanation seemed, if anything, to in- 
 crease the big stranger's surprise. " Well, if 
 that don't lick cock-fighting!" he exclaimed, con-
 
 79 
 
 templating me with admiration. " 1 never heard 
 tell of such a thing." 
 
 " And now that you have found me, Corporal 
 Smith," said the tenant of Cloomber, " what is it 
 that you want of me?" 
 
 " Why, everything ; I want a roof to cover 
 me, and clothes to wear, and food to eat, and 
 above all, brandy to drink." 
 
 w Well, I'll take you in and do what I can for 
 you," said the general, slowly. " But look here, 
 Smith, we must have discipline. I'm the gen. 
 eral and you are the corporal; I am the master 
 and you are the man. Now don't let me have to 
 remind you of that again." 
 
 The tramp drew himself up to his full height 
 and raised his right hand with the palm forward 
 in a military salute. 
 
 "I can take you on as gardener and get rid of 
 the fellc tf I have got. As to brandy, you shall 
 have an allowance and no more. We are not 
 deep drinkers at the Hall." 
 
 " Don't you take opium, or brandy, or nothing 
 yourself, sir?" asked Corporal Rufus Smith. 
 
 "Nothing," the general said, firmly. 
 
 " Well, all I can say is, that you've got more 
 nerve and pluck than I shall ever have. I don't 
 wonder now at your winning that cross in the
 
 8o 
 
 Mutiny. If I was to go on listening night after 
 night to them things without ever taking a drop 
 of something to cheer my heart why, it would 
 about drive me silly." 
 
 General Heatherstone put his hand up, as 
 though afraid that his companion might say too 
 much. " I must thank you, Mr. West," he said, 
 " for having shown this man my door. I would 
 not willingly allow an old comrade, however 
 humble, to go to the bad, and if I did not ac- 
 knowledge his claim more readily it was simply 
 because I had my doubts as to whether he was 
 really what he represented himself. Just walk 
 up to the Hall, corporal, and I shall follow you 
 in a minute." 
 
 " Poor devil !" he continued, as he watched the 
 new-comer hobbling up the avenue in the un. 
 gainly manner which I have described. " He 
 got a 64-pound shot on his foot, and it crushed 
 the bones, but the obstinate fool would not let 
 the doctors take it off. I remember him now as 
 a smart young soldier in Afghanistan. He and 
 I were associated in some queer adventures, 
 which I may tell you of some day, and I natu- 
 rally feel sympathy towards him, and would be. 
 friend him. Did he tell you anything about mo 
 before I came ?"
 
 81 
 
 * Not a word," I replied. 
 
 "Oh," said the general, carelessly, but with 
 an evident expression of relief. " I thought per. 
 haps he might have said something of old times. 
 Well, I must go and look after him, or the ser- 
 vants will be frightened, for he isn't a beauty to 
 look at. Good-bye !" With a wave of the hand 
 the old man turned away from me and hurried 
 up the drive after this unexpected addition to 
 his household, while I strolled on round the high 
 black paling, peering through every chink be- 
 tween the planks, but without seeing a trace 
 either of Mordaunt or of his sister. 
 
 I have now brought this statement down to 
 the coming of Corporal Rufus Smith, which will 
 prove to be the beginning of the end. I have 
 set down soberly and in order the events which 
 brought us to Wigtownshire, the arrival of the 
 Heatherstones at Cloomber, and many strange 
 incidents which excited first our curiosity and 
 finally our intense interest in that family, and I 
 have briefly touched upon the circumstances 
 which brought my sister and myself into a closer 
 and more personal relationship with them. I 
 think that there cannot be a better moment than 
 this to hand the narrative over to those who had 
 means <4 knowing something of |Phat was going
 
 82 
 
 on inside Cloomber during the months that I 
 was observing it from without. The evidence 
 of the two individuals whose statements I shall 
 now lay before the reader, does not, it is true, 
 amount to very much, but there are a few nota- 
 ble facts contained in It, and it corroborates and 
 amplifies my own experience. Israel Stakes, the 
 coachman, proved to be unable to read or write, 
 but Mr. Mathew Clark, the Presbyterian minis- 
 ter at Stoneykirk, has copied down his depos- 
 ition, duly attested by the cross set opposite 
 his name. The good clergyman has, I fancy, 
 put some slight polish upon the narrator's story, 
 which I rather regret, as it might have been 
 more interesting, if less intelligible, when re- 
 ported verbatim. It still preserves, however, 
 considerable traces of Israel's individuality, and 
 may be regarded as an exact record of what he 
 saw and did while in General Heatherstone's 
 service.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STATEMENT OF ISRAEL STAKES. 
 
 \1i**>ied and authenticated by the Reverend Mathew CfarJk, 
 Presbyterian minister of Stoneykirk, in Wigtownshire.] 
 
 MAISTER FOTHERGILL WEST and the meenister 
 say that I maun tell all I can aboot General 
 Heatherstone and his hoose, but that I maunna* 
 say muckle aboot mysel' because the readers 
 wouldna' care to hear aboot me or my affairs. 
 am na sae sure o' that, for the Stakes is a 
 family weel kenned and respecked on baith sides 
 o' the border, and there's mony in Nithsdale and 
 Annendale as would be gey pleased to hear 
 news o' the son o* Archie Stakes, o' Ecclefechan, 
 I maun e'en do as I'm tauld, however, for Mr. 
 West's sake, hoping he'll no forget me when I 
 chance to hae a favor tae ask.* I am no able tae 
 write mysel' because my feyther sent me oot to 
 scare craws instead o' sendin* me tae school, 
 but on the ither hond he brought me up in the 
 
 * The old rascal was well paid for his trouble, so he nee** 
 not have made such a favor of it. J. F. W.
 
 preenciples and practise o* the real kirk o* the 
 Covenant, for which may the Lord be praised ! 
 
 It was last May twel'month that the factor 
 body, Maister McNeil, cam' ower tae me in the 
 street and speered whether I was in want o' a 
 place as a coachman and gaird'ner. As it fell 
 oot I chanced tae be on the look oot for some- 
 thing o' the sort mysel' at the time, but I wasna* 
 ower quick to let him see that I wanted it. 
 
 " Ye can tak* it or leave it," says he sharp-like. 
 " It's a guid place, and there's many would be 
 glad o't. If ye want it ye can come up tae my 
 office at twa the morn and put your ain ques- 
 tions tae the gentleman." 
 
 That was a' I could get frae him, for he's a 
 close man and a hard one at a bargain which 
 shall profit him leetle in the next life, though he 
 lay by a store o' siller in this. When the day 
 comes there'll be a hantle o* factors on the left 
 hand o' the throne and I shouldna* be surprised 
 if Maister McNeil found himsel' amang them. 
 
 " Well, on the morn I gaed up to the office 
 and there I foond the factor and a lang, thin, 
 dour man wi* grey hair and a face as brown and 
 crinkled as a walnut. He looked hard at me wi' 
 a pair o' e'en that glowed ^ke twa spunks, and 
 then he says, says he I
 
 85 
 
 " You've been born in these pairts, I under, 
 stan'?" 
 
 " Aye," says I, " and never left them, neither." 
 
 " Never been oot o' Scotland ?" he speers. 
 
 "Twice to Carlisle fair," says I, for I am a 
 man wha loves the truth ; and besides I kenned 
 that the factor would mind my gaeing there, for 
 I bargained for twa steers and a stirk that he 
 wanted for the stockin* o* the Drumcleugh Fairm. 
 
 " I learn frae Maister McNeil," says General 
 Heatherstone for him it was and nane ither, 
 "that ye canna* write." 
 
 Na," says I. 
 
 ' Nor read ?" 
 
 " Na," says I. 
 
 " It seems tae me," says he, turnin* tae the 
 factor, " that this is the vera man I want. Ser- 
 vants is spoiled noo-a-days," says he,"byower 
 muckle eddication. I have nae doobt, Stakes, 
 that ye will suit me well eneugh. Ye'll hae three 
 pund a month and a' foond, but I shall resairve 
 the right o' givin* ye twenty-four hoors* notice 
 at any time. How will that suit ye ?" 
 
 " It's vera different frae my last place," says I, 
 discontented-like. And the words were true 
 eneugh, for auld Fairmer Scott only gave me a 
 pund a month and parritch twice a day.
 
 86 
 
 " Weel, weel," says he, " maybe we'll gie ye a 
 rise if ye suit. Meanwhile here's the hansel 
 shillin' that Maister McNeil tells me it's the cus- 
 tom tae give, and I shall expec' tae see ye at 
 Cloomber on Monday," 
 
 When the Monday cam' roond I walked oot 
 tae Cloomber, and a great muckle hoose it is wi* 
 a hunderd windows or mair, and space eneugh tae 
 hide awa' half the parish. As tae gairdening 
 there was no gairden for me tae work at, and 
 the horse was never taken oot o' the stables frae 
 week's end tae week's end. I was busy eneugh 
 for a' that, for there was a deal o' fencing tae be 
 put up and one thing or anither, forbye cleanin* 
 the knives and brushin' the boots and such-like 
 jobs as is mair fit for an auld wife than for a 
 grown man. There was twa beside mysel' in the 
 kitchen, the cook Eliza, and Mary the hoose- 
 maid, puir, benighted things, baith o' them, wha 
 had wasted a' their lives in Lunnon, and kenned 
 leetle aboot the warld or the ways o' the flesh, 
 I hadna* muckle tae say to them for they were 
 simple folk wha could scarce understand English, 
 and had hardly mair regard for their ain souls than 
 the tods on the moor. When the cook said she 
 didna' think muckle o' John Knox, and the ither 
 that she wouldn't gie saxpence tae hear the dis-
 
 87 
 
 course o' Maister Donald McSnaw o* the true 
 kirk, I kenned it was time for me tae leave them 
 tae a higher Judge. 
 
 There was four in family, the general, my 
 leddy, Maister Mordaunt and Miss Gabriel, and 
 it wasna' lang before I found that a' wasna* just 
 exactly as it should be. My leddy was as thin 
 and as white as a ghaist, and many's the time as 
 I've come on her and found her yammerin' and 
 greetin' all by hersel'. I've watched her walkin' 
 up and doon in the wood where she thought 
 nane could see her and wringin' her bonds like 
 one demented. There was the young gentleman 
 tae and his sister they baith seemed to hae 
 some trouble on their minds, and the general 
 maist of a', for the ithers were up ane day and 
 down anither ; but he was aye the same, wi'a 
 face as dour and sad as a felon when he feels the 
 tow roond his neck. 
 
 I speered o' the hussies in the kitchen whether 
 they kenned what was amiss wi' the family, but 
 the cook she answered me back that it wasna' 
 for her tae inquire into the affairs o' her superi- 
 ors and that it was naething to her as long as 
 she did her work and had her wages. They 
 were puir, feckless bodies, the twa o' them, and 
 would scarce gie an answer tae a ceevil question
 
 88 
 
 though they could clack loud eneugh when they 
 had a mind. 
 
 Weel, weeks passed into months and a "things 
 grew waur instead o' better in the Hall. The 
 general he got mair nairvous, and his leddy 
 mair melancholy every day, and yet there wasna' 
 any quarrel or bickering between them, for 
 when they've been together in the breakfast 
 room I used often tae gang round and prune 
 the rose tree alongside o' the window, so that I 
 couldna* help hearin* a great pairt o' their con- 
 versation, though sair against the grain. When 
 the young folk were wi' them they would speak 
 little, but when they had gone they would aye 
 talk as if some waefu' trial were aboot to fa' 
 upon them, though I could never gather from 
 their words what it was that they were afeard 
 o'. I've heard the general say mair than ance 
 that he wasna' frighted o' death, or of any 
 danger that he could face and have done wi', 
 but that it was the lang, weary waitin* and the 
 uncertainty that had taken a* the strength and 
 the mettle oot o' him. Then my leddy would 
 console him and tell him that maybe it wasna' 
 as bad as he thought and that a' would come 
 richt in the end but a' her cheery words were 
 clean throwed away upon him. As tae th
 
 8 9 
 
 young folk I kenned weel that they dinna* bide 
 in the groonds, and that they were awa' when- 
 ever they got a chance wi' Maister Fothergill 
 West tae Branksome, but the general was too 
 fu' o' his ain troubles tae ken aboot it, and it 
 didna* seem tae me that it was pairt o* my du- 
 ties either as coachman or as gaird'ner tae mind 
 the bairns. He should have lairned that if ye 
 forbid a lassie and a laddie to dae anything it's 
 just the surest way o* bringin' it aboot. The 
 Lord foond that oot in the gairdin o' Paradise, 
 and there's no muckle change between the folk 
 in Eden and the folk in Wigtown. 
 
 There's ane thing that I havena* spoke aboot yet, 
 but that should be set doon. The general didna' 
 share his room wi' his wife, but slept a' alane in 
 a chamber at the far end o' the hoose, as distant 
 as possible frae every one else. This room was 
 aye lockit when he wasna' in it, and naebody 
 was ever allowed tae gang into it. He would 
 raak' his ain bed, and red it up and dust it a* by 
 himself, but he wouldna' so much as allow one 
 o' us to set fut on the passage that led tae it. 
 At nicht he would walk a' ower the hoose, and 
 he had lamps hung in every room and corner, so 
 that no pairt should be dark. Many's the time 
 frae my room in the garret I've heard his fut-
 
 90 
 
 steps comin' and gangin', comin' and gangin', 
 doun one passage and up anither, frae midnight 
 till cockcraw. It was weary wark to lie listenin' 
 tae his clatter and wonderin' whether he was 
 clean daft, or whether maybe he'd learned pagan 
 and. idolatrous tricks oot in India, and that his 
 conscience noo was like the worm which gnaw- 
 eth and dieth not. I'd ha' speered frae him 
 whether it wonldna* ease him to speak wi* the 
 holy Donald McSnaw, but it might ha' been a 
 mistake, and the general wasna* a man that you'd 
 care tae mak' a mistake wi'. 
 
 Ane day I was workin' at the grass border 
 when he comes up and he says, says he, " Did ye 
 ever have occasion tae fire a pistol, Israel?" 
 
 "Godsakes!" says I, "I never had siccan a 
 thing in my honds in my life." 
 
 " Then you'd best not begfn noo," says he. 
 "Every man tae his ain weepon," he says. 
 " Now I warrant ye could dae something wi' a 
 guid crab-tree cudgel !" 
 
 "Aye, could I," I answered, blithely, "as 
 weel as ony lad on the border." 
 
 "This is a lonely hoose," says he, "and we 
 might be molested by some rascals. It's weel 
 tae be ready for whatever may come. Me and 
 you and my son Mordaunt and Mr. Fothergill
 
 9' 
 
 West, of Branksome, who would come if he was 
 required, ought tae be able tae show a bauld 
 face what think ye?" 
 
 " 'Deed, sir," I says, " feastin* is aye better 
 than fechtin' but if ye'll raise me a pund a 
 month, I'll no shirk my share o* either." 
 
 " We won't quarrel ower that," says he, and 
 agreed tae the extra twal' pund a year as easy as 
 though it were as many bawbees. Far be itfrae 
 me tae think evil, but I couldna' help surmisin* 
 at the time that money that was so lightly 
 pairted wi' was maybe no very honestly cam* 
 by. 
 
 " I'm no* a curious or a pryin* mun by nature, 
 but I was sair puzzled in my aim mind tae tell 
 why it was that the general walked aboot at 
 nicht and what kept him frae his sleep. Well, 
 a'e day I was cleanin* down the passages when 
 my e'e fell on a great muckle heap o' curtains 
 and auld cairpets and sic' like things that were 
 piled away in a corner, no vera far frae the door 
 o' the general's room. A' o' a sudden a thocht 
 cam'intae my heid and I says tae mysel', " Israel, 
 laddie," says I, " what's tae stop ye frae hidin' 
 behind that this vera nicht and seein' the auld 
 mun when he doesna'ken human e'e is on him r** 
 The mair I thocht o't the mair seemple it
 
 9 2 
 
 appeared, and I made up my mind tae put the 
 idea intae instant execution. 
 
 When the nicht cam' roond 1 tauld the women- 
 folk that I was bad wi' the jawache, and would 
 gang airly tae my room. I kenned fine when 
 ance I got there that there was na chance o' ony 
 one disturbin* me, so I waited a wee while, and 
 then when a' was quiet, I slippit aft my boots and 
 ran doun the ither stair until I cam' tae the heap 
 o' auld clothes, and there I lay doun wi f one e'e 
 peepin' through a kink and a' the rest covered 
 up wi' a great ragged cairpet. There I bided as 
 quiet as a rotten until the general passed me on 
 his road tae bed, and a* was still in the house. 
 
 My certie ! I wouldna' gang through wi' it 
 again for a* the siller at the Union Bank o' 
 Dumfries ! I canna think o't noo withoot feelin' 
 cauld a' the way doun my back. It was just 
 awfu' lyin' there in the deid silence, waitin' and 
 waitin' wi' never a soond tae break the monotony, 
 except the heavy tickin' o' an auld clock some* 
 where doun the passage. First I would look 
 doun the corridor in the one way, and syne I'd 
 look doun in t'ither, but it aye seemed to me as 
 though there was something coming up frae the 
 side that I wasna' lookin' at. I had a cauld sweat 
 on my broo and my hairt was beatin' twice tae
 
 93 
 
 ttka tick o* the clock, and what feared me most 
 of a' was that the dust frae the curtains and things 
 was aye gettin' doun into my lungs and it was a' 
 I could dae tae keep mysel' frae coughin'. God- 
 sakes ! I wonder my hair wasna' grey wi' a' that 
 I went through ! I wouldna' dae it again to be 
 made Lord Provost o' Glasgie ! 
 
 Well, it may have been twa o'clock in the 
 mornin* or maybe a little mair, and I was just 
 thinkin* that I wasna' tae see onything after a' 
 and I wasna' very sorry neither when all o' a 
 sudden a soond cam' tae my ears clear and distinct 
 through the stillness o' the nicht. I've beenasked 
 afore noo tae describe that soond, but I've aye 
 foond that it's no' vera easy tae gie a clear idea 
 o't, though it was unlike any other soond that 
 ever I hearkened tae. It was a shairp ringin* 
 clang, like what could be caused by flippin' the 
 rim o' a wine glass, but it was far higher and 
 thinner than that and had in it tae a kind o* 
 splash, like the tingle o' a rain-drop intae a water- 
 butt. In my fear I sat up amang my cairpets, 
 like a puddock among gowan-leaves, and I list- 
 ened wi* a' my ears. A' was still again noo, 
 except for the dull tickin' o' the distant clock. 
 
 Suddenly the soond cam* again, as clear, as 
 shrill, as shairp as ever, and this time the general
 
 94 
 
 heard It, for I heard him gie a kind o* groan, as 
 a tired man might wha has been roosed oot o' 
 his sleep. He got up frae his bed, and I could 
 make oot a rustling noise, as though he were 
 dressin' himsel', and presently his footfa' as he 
 begun tae walk up and doun in his room. 
 My sakes ! it didna tak' lang for me tae drap doun 
 amang the cairpets again and cover mysel'ower! 
 There I lay tremblin* in every limb, and sayin' as 
 mony prayers as I could mind, \vi* my e'e still 
 peepin' through the keek-hole, and fixed upon 
 the door o' the general's room. 
 
 I heard the rattle o' the handle presently, and 
 the door swung slowly open. There was a licht 
 burnin' in the room beyond, an' I could just 
 catch a glimpse o' what seemed tae me like a row 
 o' swords stuck alang the side o' the wa', when 
 the general stepped oot and shut the door behind 
 him. He was dressed in a dressin' goon, wi' a 
 red smokin'-cap on his heid, and a pair o' slippers 
 wi' the heels cut off and the taes turned up. For 
 a moment it cam* into my heid that maybe he was 
 walkin' in his sleep, but as he cam' towards me I 
 could see the glint o' the licht in his e'en, and his 
 face was a' twistin', like a man that's in sair dis- 
 tress o' mind. On my conscience it gies me the 
 shakes noo wheu I think o' his tall figure and his
 
 95 
 
 yelley face comin'sae solemn and silent doun the 
 lang, lone passage. I baud my breath and lay 
 close watchin* him, but just as he cam' tae where 
 I was my vera hairt stood still in my breast, for 
 "ting!" lood and clear, within a yaird o' me 
 cam the ringin', clangin' soond that I had a'ready 
 hairkened tae. Where it cam* frae is mair than I 
 can tell, or what was the cause o't. It might ha* 
 been that the general made it, but I was sair 
 puzzled tae tell hoo, for his honds were baith 
 doun by his side as he passed me. It cam' frae 
 his direction, certainly, but it appeared tae me 
 tae come frae ower his heid ; but it was siccan a 
 thin, eerie, high-pitched, uncanny kind o' soond 
 that it wasna* easy tae say just exactly where it 
 did come frae. The general tak* nae heed o't, but 
 walked on and was soon ooto'sicht, and I didna* 
 lose a minute in creepin'oot frae my hidin'placo 
 and scamperin* awa* back tae my room, and if a* 
 the bogies in the Red Sea were trapesin' up and 
 doun the hale nicht through, I wud never put my 
 heid oot again tae hae a glimpse o' them. 
 
 I didna' say a word tae anybody aboot what 
 I'd seen, but I made up my mind that I wudna* 
 stay muckle langer at Cloomber Ha*. Four 
 pund a month is a good wage, but it isna' enough 
 tae pay a man for the loss 6 his peace o' mind,
 
 9 6 
 
 and maybe the loss o* his soul as weel, for when 
 the deil is abootye canna* tell what sort o' a trap 
 he may lay for ye, and though they say that 
 Providence is stronger than him, it's maybe as 
 weel no to risk it. It was clear tae me that the gen- 
 eral and his hoose were baith under some curse, 
 and it was fit that that curse should fa* on them 
 that had earned it, and no' on a righteous Presby- 
 terian, wha had ever trod the narrow path. My 
 hairt was sair for young Miss Gabriel for she 
 was a bonnie and a winsome lassie but for a' 
 that, I felt that my duty was tae mysel' and that 
 I should gang forth, even as Lot ganged oot o' 
 the wicked cities o' the plain. That awfu* cling- 
 clang was aye dingin' in my lugs, and I couldrra* 
 bear to be alane in the passages for fear o* hearin* 
 it ance again. I only wanted a chance or an 
 excuse tae gie the general notice, and tae gang 
 back to some place where I could see Christian 
 folk, and have the kirk within a stone-cast tae fa* 
 back upon. 
 
 But it proved to be ordained that instead o* 
 my saying the word, it should come frae the 
 general himsel'. It was a'e day aboot the end of 
 September, I was comin' oot o' the stable, after 
 giein' its oats tae the horse, when I seed a great 
 muckle loon come hoppin* on ane leg wp the
 
 drive, mair like a big, ill-faured craw than a man. 
 When I clapped my e'en on him I thocht that 
 maybe this was ane of the rascals that the 
 maister had been speakin* aboot, so withoot 
 mair ado I fetched oot my bit stick with the in- 
 tention o* tryin' it upon the limmer's heid. He 
 seed me comin' towards him, and readin* my 
 intention frae my look maybe, or frae the stick 
 in my hand, he pu'ed oot a lang knife frae his 
 pocket and swore wi' the most awfu' oaths that 
 if I didna* stan* back he'd be the death o' me. 
 Ma conscience, the words the chiel used was 
 eneugh tae mak' the hair stand straight on your 
 heid 1 I wonner he wasna' struck deid where he 
 stood. We were still stanin* opposite each 
 ither he wi' his knife and me wi' the stick- 
 when the general he cam* up the drive and 
 foond us. Tae my surprise he began tae talk tae 
 the stranger as if he'd kenned him a* his days. 
 
 " Put your knife in your pocket, corporal,'* 
 says he. " Your fears have turned your brain." 
 
 " Blood an' wounds 1" says the other. " He'd 
 ha' turned my brain tae some purpose wi' that 
 muckle stick o' his if I hadna* drawn my snicker- 
 snee. You shouldna' keep siccan an auld sav- 
 age on your premises." 
 
 The maister he frooned and looked black at
 
 him as though he didna* relish advice comll* 
 frae such a source. Then turnin' tae me, " You 
 won't be wanted after to-day, Israel," he says; 
 " you have been a guid servant and I ha' nae- 
 thing tae complain of wi' ye, but circumstances 
 have arisen which will cause me tae change my 
 arrangements." " Vera guid, sir," says I. " You 
 can go this evening," says he, " and you shall 
 have an extra month's pay tae mak' up t'ye for 
 this short notice." Wi' that he went intae the 
 hoose, followed by the man that he ca'ed the 
 corporal, and frae that day tae this I have never 
 clapped e'en either on the ane or the ither. My 
 money was sent oot tae me in an envelope, and 
 havin' said a few pairtin' words tae the cook and 
 the wench wi* reference tae the wrath tae come 
 and the treasure that is richer than rubies, I 
 shook the dust o' Cloomber frae my feet for 
 ever. 
 
 Maister Fothergill West says I maunna' ex- 
 press an opeenion as tae what cam' aboot after- 
 wards, but maun confine mysel' tae what I saw 
 mysel'. Nae doobt he has his reasons for this 
 and far be it frae me tae hint that they are no 
 guid anes but I maun say this, that what hap- 
 pened didna' surprise me. It was just as I ex- 
 peckit, and so I said to Maister Donald McSnaw.
 
 99 
 
 I've tanld ye a' aboot it noo, and I havena" a 
 word tae add or tae withdraw. Tm muckle 
 obleeged tae Maister Mathew Clairk for puttirT 
 it a' doun in writin' for me, and if there's ony 
 would wish tae speer onything mair o* me I'm 
 well kenned and respeckit in Ecclefechan, and 
 Maister McNeil, the factor o* Wigtown, can aye 
 tell where I am tae be foond.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 NARRATIVE OF JOHN EASTERLING, F.R.C.P. 
 EDIN. 
 
 HAVING given the statement of Israel Stakes 
 in extenso, I shall now append a short memoran- 
 dum from Dr. Easterling, now practising 1 at 
 Stranraer. It is true that the doctor was only 
 once within the walls of Cloomber during its 
 tenancy by General Heatherstone, but there 
 were some circumstances connected with this 
 visit which made it valuable, especially when 
 considered as a supplement to the experiences 
 which I have just submitted to the reader. The 
 doctor has found time amid the calls of a busy 
 country practise to jot down his recollections, 
 and I feel that I cannot do better than subjoin 
 them exactly as they stand. 
 
 I HAVE very much pleasure in furnishing Mr. 
 Fothergill West with an account of my solitary 
 visit to Cloomber Hall, not only on account of 
 the esteem which I have formed for that gentle-
 
 101 
 
 man ever since his residence at Branksome, but 
 also because it is my conviction that the facts in 
 the case of General Heatherstone are of such a 
 singular nature that it is of the highest import, 
 ance that they should be placed before the pub- 
 lic in a trustworthy manner. 
 
 It was about the beginning of September of 
 the year before last, that I received a note from 
 Mrs. Heatherstone, of Cloomber Hall, desiring 
 me to make a professional call upon her husband, 
 whose health, she said, had been for some time 
 in a very unsatisfactory state. I had heard 
 something of the Heatherstones and of the 
 strange seclusion in which they lived, so that I 
 was very much pleased at this opportunity of 
 making their closer acquaintance, and lost no 
 time in complying with her request. I had 
 known the Hall in the old days of Mr. McVittie, 
 the original proprietor, and I was astonished on 
 arriving at the avenue gate to observe the 
 changes which had taken place. The gate itself, 
 which used to yawn so hospitably upon the road, 
 was now barred and locked, and a high wooden 
 fence with nails upon the top encircled the 
 whole grounds. The drive itself was leaf-strewn 
 and uncared for, and the whole place had a 
 depressing air of neglect and decay.
 
 102 
 
 I had to knock twice before a servant-maid 
 opened the door and showed me through a 
 dingy hall into a small room, where sat an 
 elderly, care-worn lady, who introduced herself 
 as Mrs. Heatherstone. With her pale face, her 
 grey hair, her sad, colorless eyes and her faded 
 silk dress, she was in perfect keeping with her 
 melancholy surroundings. 
 
 " You find us in much trouble, doctor," she 
 said in a quiet, refined voice. " My poor hus- 
 band has had a great deal to worry him, and his 
 nervous system for a long time has been in a 
 very weak state. We came to this part of the 
 country in the hope that the bracing air and the 
 quiet would have a good effect upon him. 
 Instead of improving, however, he has seemed 
 to grow weaker, and this morning he is in a high 
 fever and a little inclined to be delirious. The 
 children and I were so frightened that we sent 
 for you at once. If you will follow me I will 
 take you to the general's bedroom." 
 
 She led the way down a series of corridors to 
 the chamber of the sick man, which was situated 
 in the extreme wing of the building. It was a 
 carpetless, bleak-looking room, scantily furnished 
 with a small truckle-bed, a campaigning chair, 
 and a plain deal table, on which were scattered
 
 103 
 
 numerous papers and books. In the centre ol 
 this table there stood a large object of irregular 
 outline which was covered over with a sheet of 
 linen. Alt round the walls and in the corners 
 were arranged a very choice and varied collec- 
 tion of arms, principally swords, some of which 
 were of the straight pattern in common use in 
 the British army, while among the others 
 were scimitars, tulwars, cuchurries, and a score 
 of other specimens of Oriental workmanship. 
 Many of these were richly mounted with inlaid 
 sheaths and hilts sparkling with precious stones, 
 so that there was a piquant contrast between 
 the simplicity of the apartment and the wealth 
 which glittered on the walls. I had little time, 
 however, to observe the general's collection, 
 since the general himself lay upon his couch 
 and was evidently in sore need of my services. 
 
 He was lying with his head turned half away 
 from us, breathing heavily, and apparently 
 unconscious of our presence. His bright, star, 
 ing eyes and the deep, hectic flush upon his 
 cheek showed that his fever was at its height. I 
 advanced to the bedside, and, stooping over 
 him, I placed my fingers upon his pulse, when 
 immediately he sprang up into the sitting posi- 
 tion and struck at me frenziedly with his
 
 clenched hands. I have never seen such intens- 
 ity of fear and horror stamped upon a human 
 face as appeared upon that which was now glar- 
 ing up at me. 
 
 "Bloodhound!" he yelled; "let me go let 
 me go, I say I Keep your hands oft me. Is it 
 not enough that my life has been ruined ? When 
 is it all to end? How long am I to endure it? H 
 
 * Hush, dear, hush 1" said his wife in a sooth, 
 ing voice, passing her cool hand over his heated 
 forehead. " This is Doctor Easterling, from 
 Stranraer. He has not come to harm you, but 
 to do you good." 
 
 The general dropped wearily back upon his 
 pillow, and I could see by the changed expres- 
 sion of his face that the delirium had left him 
 and that he understood what had been said. I 
 slipped my clinical thermometer into his armpit 
 and counted his pulse rate. It amounted to 120 
 per minute, and his temperature proved to be 
 104 degrees. Clearly it was a case of remittent 
 fever, such as occurs in men who have spent a 
 great part of their lives in the tropics. " There 
 is no danger," I remarked. With a little 
 quinine and arsenic we shall very soon overcome 
 the attack and restore his health." 
 
 " No danger, eh 1" he said. " There never is
 
 10$ 
 
 any danger for me. I am as hard to kill as the 
 Wandering Jew. I am quite clear in the head 
 now, Mary ; so you may leave me with the 
 doctor." 
 
 Mrs. Heatherstone left the room rather un- 
 willingly, as I thought and I sat down by the 
 bedside to listen to anything which my patient 
 might have to communicate. 
 
 " I want you to examine my liver," he said, 
 when the door was closed. " I used to have an 
 abscess there, and Brodie, the staff-surgeon, said 
 that it was ten to one that it would carry me off. 
 I have not felt much of it since I left the East. 
 This is where it used to be, just under the angle 
 of the ribs." 
 
 " I can find the place," said I, after making a 
 careful examination ; " but I am happy to tell you 
 that the abscess has either been entirely absorbed 
 or has turned calcareous, as these solitary ab- 
 scesses will. There is no fear of its doing you 
 any harm now." 
 
 He seemed to be by no means overjoyed at 
 the intelligence. 
 
 " Things always happen so with me,'* he said, 
 moodily. " Now, if another fellow was feverish 
 and delirious he would surely be in some danger; 
 and yet you will tell me that I am in none. Look
 
 io6 
 
 at this, now.*' He bared his chest and showed 
 me a puckered wound over the region of the 
 heart. " That's where the Jezail bullet of a hill 
 man went in. You would think that was in the 
 right spot to settle a man ; and yet what does it 
 do but glance upon a rib, and go clean round and 
 out at the back, without so much as penetrating 
 what you medicos call the pleura. Did ever 
 you hear of such a thing?" 
 
 " You were certainly born under a lucky star," 
 I observed with a smile. 
 
 "That's a matter of opinion," he answered, 
 shaking his head. ' Death has no terrors for 
 me, if it will but come in some familiar form ; 
 but I confess that the anticipation of some 
 strange, some preternatural form of death, is very 
 terrible and unnerving " 
 
 "You mean," said I, rather puzzled at his 
 remark, " that you would prefer a natural death 
 to a death by violence." 
 
 " No, I don't mean that exactly," he answered. 
 " I am too familiar with cold steel and lead to 
 be afraid of either. Do you know anything 
 about odyllic force, doctor ?" 
 
 " No, I do not," I replied, glancing sharply at 
 him to see if there were any signs of his delirium 
 returning.
 
 107 
 
 His expression was intelligent, however, and 
 the feverish flush had faded from his cheeks. 
 
 " Ah, you western scientific men are very 
 much behind the day in some things," he re- 
 marked. " In all that is material and conducive 
 to the comfort of the body you are pre-eminent, 
 but in what concerns the subtle forces of nature 
 and the latent powers of the human spirit, your 
 best men are centuries behind the humblest 
 coolies of India. Countless generations of beef- 
 eating, comfort-loving ancestors have given our 
 animal instincts the command over our spiritual 
 ones. The body, which should have been a mere 
 tool for the use of the soul, has now become a 
 degrading prison in which it is confined. The 
 Oriental soul and body is not so welded together 
 as ours is, and there is far less wrench when they 
 part in death." 
 
 " They do not appear to derive much benefit 
 from this peculiarity in their organization," I 
 remarked, incredulously. 
 
 " Merely the benefit of superior knowledge/* 
 the general answered. " If you were to go to 
 India, probably the very first thing you would 
 see in the way of amusement would be a native 
 doing what is called the mango trick Of course 
 you have heard or read of it. The fellow plants
 
 io6 
 
 a mango seed and makes passes over it until it 
 sprouts and bears leaves and fruit all in the 
 space of half an hour. It is not really a trick 
 it is a power. These men know more than your 
 Tyndalls or Huxleys do about Nature's pro- 
 cesses, and they can accelerate or retard her 
 workings by subtle means, of which we have no 
 conception. These low-caste conjurros as they 
 are called are mere vulgar dabblers, but the 
 men who have trod the higher path, the brethren 
 of the Ragi-zog, are far more our superiors in 
 knowledge than we are of the Hottentots or 
 Patagonians." 
 
 " You speak as if you were well acquainted 
 with them," I remarked. 
 
 " To my cost, I do," he answered. " I have 
 been brought in contact with them in a way in 
 which I trust no other poor devil ever will be. 
 But, really, as regards odyllic force you ought 
 to know something of it, for it has a great future 
 before it in your profession. You should read 
 Reichenbach's ' Researches on Magnetism and 
 Vital Force/ and Gregory's ' Letters on Animal 
 Magnetism.' These supplemented by the twenty- 
 seven Aphorisms of Mesmer, and the works of 
 Dr. Justinus Kerner, of Weinsberg, would 
 enlarge your ideas.'*
 
 109 
 
 I did not particularly relish having a course of 
 reading prescribed for me on a subject connected 
 with my own profession, so I made no comment, 
 but rose to take my departure. Before doing so 
 I felt his pulse once more, and found that the 
 fever had entirely left him, in the sudden, unac- 
 countable fashion which is peculiar to these 
 malarious types of disease. I turned my face 
 towards him to congratulate him upon his im. 
 provement, and stretched out my hand at the 
 same time to pick my gloves from the table, with 
 the result that I raised not only my own property, 
 but also the linen cloth which was arranged over 
 some object in the centre. I might not have 
 noticed what I had done had I not seen an angry 
 look upon the invalid's face and heard him utter 
 an impatient exclamation. I at once turned, 
 and replaced the cloth so promptly that I should 
 have been unable to say what was underneath it, 
 beyond having a general impression that it looked 
 like a bride-cake. 
 
 " All right, doctor," the general said good- 
 humoredly, perceiving how entirely accidental 
 the incident was. " There is no reason why you 
 should not see it," and stretching out his hand, 
 he pulled away the linen covering for the second 
 time. I then perceived that what I had taken
 
 I to 
 
 I 
 
 for a bride-cake was really an admirably executed 
 model of a lofty range of mountains, whose 
 snow-clad peaks were not unlike the familiar 
 sugar pinnacles and minarets. 
 
 " These are the Himalayas, or at least the 
 Surinam branch of them," he remarked, " show- 
 ing the principal passes between India and 
 Afghanistan. It is an exellent model. This 
 ground has a special interest for me, because it 
 is the scene of my first campaign. There is the 
 pass opposite Kalabagh and the Thul valley, 
 where I was engaged during the summer of 
 1841, in protecting the convoys and keeping the 
 Afridis in order. It wasn't a sinecure I promise 
 you." 
 
 " And this," said I, indicating a blood-red spot 
 which had been marked on one side of the pass 
 which he had pointed out " this is the scene of 
 some fight in which you were engaged." 
 
 ." Yes, we had a skirmish there," he answered, 
 leaning forward and looking at the red mark. 
 
 " We were attacked by " At this moment 
 
 he fell back upon his pillow as if he had been 
 shot, while the same look of horror came over 
 his face which I had observed when I first 
 entered the room. At the same instant there 
 came, apparently from the air immediately above
 
 Ill 
 
 his bed, a sharp, ringing, tinkling sound, which 
 I can only compare to the noise made by a 
 bicycle alarm, though it differed from this in 
 having a distinctly throbbing character. I have 
 never, before or since, heard any sound which 
 could be confounded with it. I stared round in 
 astonishment, wondering where it could have 
 come from, but without perceiving anything to 
 which it could be ascribed. 
 
 " It's all right, doctor," the general said, with 
 a forced smile. " It's only my private gong. 
 Perhaps you had better step downstairs and 
 write my prescription in the dining-room. 
 
 He was evidently anxious to get rid of me ; so 
 I was forced to take my departure, though I 
 would gladly have stayed a little longer, in the 
 hope of learning something as to the origin of 
 the mysterious sound. I drove away from the 
 house with the full determination of calling 
 again upon my interesting patient, and endeavor- 
 ing to elicit some further particulars as to his 
 past life and his present circumstances. I was 
 destined, however, to be disappointed ; for I 
 received that very evening a note from the gen- 
 eral himself, inclosing a handsome fee for my 
 single visit, and informing me that my treatment 
 had done him so much Ejood that he considered
 
 113 
 
 himself to be convalescent, and would not trouble 
 me to see him again. This was the last and the 
 only communication which I ever received from 
 the tenant of Cloomber. 
 
 I have been frequently asked by neighbors 
 and others who were interested in the matter, 
 whether he gave me the impression of insanity. 
 To this I must unhesitatingly answer in the neg- 
 ative. On the contrary his remarks gave me 
 the idea of a man who had both read and thought 
 deeply. I observed, however, during our single 
 interview, that his reflexes were feeble, his arcus 
 senilis well-marked, and his arteries atheroma- 
 tous all signs that his constitution was in an 
 unsatisfactory condition, and that n sudden 
 crisis might be apprehended.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 OF THE LETTER WHICH CAME FROM THE HALI, 
 
 Having thrown this side-light upon my nar- 
 rative, I can now resume the statement of my 
 own personal experiences. These I had brought 
 down, as the reader will doubtless remember, to 
 the date of the arrival of the savage-looking 
 wanderer who called himself Corporal Rufus 
 Smith. This incident occurred about the close 
 of the month of September, and I find upon a 
 comparison of dates that Dr. Easterling's visit 
 to Cloomber preceded it by three weeks or 
 more. During all this time I was in sore dis- 
 tress of mind, for I had never seen anything 
 cither of Gabriel or of her brother since the 
 interview in which the general had discovered 
 the communication which was kept up between 
 us. I had no doubt that some sort of restraint 
 had been placed upon them ; and the thought 
 that we had brought trouble on their heads was 
 a bitter one both to my sister and myself. 
 
 Our anxiety, however, was considerably miti-
 
 114 
 
 gated by the receipt, a couple of days after my 
 last talk with the general, of a note from Mor- 
 daunt Heatherstone. This was brought us by a 
 little ragged urchin, the son of one of the fisher, 
 men, who informed us that it had been handed 
 to him at the avenue gate by an old woman 
 who, I expect, must have been the Cloomber 
 cook. 
 
 " My dearest friends," it ran, " Gabriel and I 
 have grieved to think how concerned you must 
 be at having neither heard from or seen us. 
 The fact is that we are compelled to remain in 
 the house. And this compulsion is not physical 
 but moral. Our poor father, who gets more and 
 more nervous every day, has entreated us to 
 promise him that we will not go out until after 
 the 5th of October, and to allay his fears we 
 have given him the desired pledge. On the 
 other hand, he has promised us that alter the 
 5th that is, in less than a week we shall be as 
 free as air to come or go as we please ; so we 
 have something to look forward to. Gabriel 
 says that she has explained to you that the gov- 
 ernor is always a changed man after this par- 
 ticular date, on which his fears reach a crisis. 
 He apparently has more reason than usual this 
 year to anticipate that trouble is brewing for
 
 this unfortunate family, for I have never known 
 him to take so many elaborate precautions or 
 appear so thoroughly unnerved. Who would 
 ever think, to see his bent form and his shak- 
 ing hands, that he is the same man who used 
 some few short years ago to shoot tigers on 
 foot among the jungles of the Terai, and would 
 l^ugh at the more timid sportsmen who sought 
 the protection of their elephant's howdah ? 
 You know that he has the Victoria Cross, which 
 he won in the streets of Delhi, and yet here he 
 is shivering with terror and starting at every 
 noise, in the most peaceful corner of the world. 
 Oh, the pity of it, West ! Remember what I 
 have already told you that it is no fanciful 
 or imaginary peril, but one which we have 
 every reason to suppose to be most real. 
 It is, however, of such a nature that it can 
 neither be averted nor can it profitably be ex- 
 pressed in words. If all goes well, you will see 
 us at Branksome on the 6th. With our fondest 
 love to both of you, I am ever, my dear friends, 
 your attached MORDAUNT." 
 
 This letter was a great relief to us as letting 
 us know that the brother and sister were under 
 no physical restraint ; but our powerlessness and
 
 inability even to comprehend what the danger 
 was which threatened those whom we had come 
 to love better than oursevives was little short of 
 maddening. Fifty times a day we asked our- 
 selves and asked each other from what possible 
 quarter this peril was to be expected ; but the 
 more we thought of it the more hopeless did any 
 solution appear. In vain we combined our 
 experiences and pieced together every word 
 which had fallen from the lips of any inmate of 
 Cloomber which might be supposed to bear di- 
 rectly or indirectly upon the subject. At last, 
 weary with fruitless speculation, we were fain to 
 try and drive the matter from our thoughts, 
 consoling ourselves with the reflection that in a 
 few more days all restrictions would be removed, 
 and we should be able to learn from our friends' 
 own lips. Those few intervening days, how- 
 ever, would, we feared, be dreary, long ones. 
 And so they would, had it not been for a new 
 and most unexpected incident, which diverted 
 our minds from our own troubles and gave them 
 something fresh with which to occupy thenv 
 selves.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 OF THE CASTING AWAY OF THE BARK 
 " BELINDA." 
 
 OCTOBER had broken auspiciously with a 
 bright sun and a cloudless sky. There had in 
 the morning been a slight breeze, and a few little 
 white wreaths of vapor drifted here and there 
 like the scattered feathers of some gigantic bird ; 
 but as the day wore on, such wind as there was 
 fell completely away, and the air became close 
 and stagnant. The sun blazed down with a 
 degree of heat which was remarkable so late in 
 the season, and a shimmering haze lay upon the 
 upland moors and concealed the Irish mountains 
 on the other side of the Channel. The sea itself 
 rose and fell in a long, heavy, oily roll, sweeping 
 slowly landward, and breaking sullenly with a 
 dull, monotonous booming upon the rock-girt 
 h ore. To the inexperienced all seemed calm 
 and peaceful, but to those who are accustomed 
 to read Nature's warnings there was a dark 
 menace in air and sky and sea.
 
 My sister and I walked out in the afternoon, 
 sauntering slowly along the margin of the great, 
 sandy spit which shoots out into the Irish Sea, 
 flanking upon one side the magnificent Bay 
 of Luce, and on the other the more obscure 
 inlet of Kirkmaiden, on the shores of which 
 the Branksome property is situated. It was 
 too sultry to go far ; so we soon seated our- 
 selves upon one of the sandy hillocks, over- 
 grown with faded grass-tufts, which extend 
 along the coast-line, and which form Nature's 
 dykes against the encroachments of the ocean. 
 Our rest was soon interrupted by the scrunching 
 of heavy boots upon the shingle ; and Jamieson, 
 the old man-o'-war's man whom I have already 
 had occasion to mention, made his appearance, 
 with the flat, circular net upon his back which he 
 used for shrimp-catching. He came towards us 
 upon seeing us, and said in his rough, kindly way 
 that he hoped we would not take it amiss if he 
 sent us up a dish of shrimps for our tea at Brank- 
 some. " I aye make a good catch before a 
 storm," he remarked. 
 
 " You think there is going to be a storm, 
 then ?" I asked. 
 
 "Why, even a marine could see that," he an, 
 wered, sticking a great wedge of tobacco into
 
 H 9 
 
 his cheek. " The moors over near Cloomber 
 are just white wi' gulls and kittiwakes. What 
 d'ye think they come ashore for except to es- 
 cape having all the feathers blown out o' them ? 
 I mind a day like this when I was wi' Charlie 
 Napier off Cronstadt. It well nigh blew us un- 
 der the guns of the forts, for all our engines and 
 propellers." 
 
 " Have you ever known a wreck in these 
 parts ?" I asked. 
 
 " Lord love ye, sir, it's a famous place for 
 Wrecks. Why, in that very bay down there two 
 o' King Philip's first-rates foundered wi' all 
 hands in the days o' the Spanish war. If that 
 sheet o* water and the Bny o' Luce round the 
 corner could tell their ain tale they'd have a gey 
 lot to speak of. When the Jedgment Day 
 comes round that water will be just bubbling wi' 
 the number o* folks that will b coming up frae 
 the bottom." 
 
 " I trust that there will be no wreck? while we 
 are here," said Esther, earnestly. 
 
 The old man shook his griziled head and 
 looked distrustfully at the hazy hon'zon. " If it 
 blows from the west," he said, " some o' these 
 sailing ships may find it no /oke to be caught 
 without sea-room in the North Ch?pnel
 
 120 
 
 There's that bark out there I daresay her 
 maister would be glad enough to find himself 
 safe in the Clyde." 
 
 " She seems to be absolutely motionless," I re- 
 marked, looking at the vessel in question, whose 
 black hull and gleaming sails rose and fell slowly 
 with the throbbing of the giant pulse beneath 
 her. " Perhaps, Jamieson, we are wrong, and 
 there will be no storm after all." 
 
 The old sailor chuckled to himself with an air 
 of superior knowledge, and shuffled away with 
 his shrimp-net, while my sister and I walked 
 slowly homeward through the hot and stagnant 
 air. I went up to my father's study to see if the 
 old gentleman had any instructions as to the es- 
 tate, for he had become engrossed in a new work 
 upon Oriental literature, and the practical man. 
 agement of the property had in consequence de- 
 volved entirely upon me. 
 
 I I found him seated at his square library table, 
 which was so heaped with books and papers that 
 nothing of him was visible from the door except 
 a tuft of white hair. ' My dear son," he said to 
 me as I entered, " it is a great grief to me that 
 you are not more conversant with Sanscrit. 
 When I was your age, I could converse not 
 only in that noble language, but also in the
 
 121 
 
 Tamulic, Lohitic, Gangelic, Taic, and MalaJc 
 dialects, which are all offshoots from the Turan- 
 ian branch." 
 
 " I reget extremely, sir," I answered, " that I 
 have not inherited your wonderful talents as a 
 polyglot." 
 
 " I have set myself a task," he explained, 
 44 which, if it could only be continued from 
 generation to generation in our own family until 
 it was completed, would make the name of West 
 immortal. This is nothing less than to publish 
 an English translation of the Buddhist Djarmas, 
 with a preface giving an idea of the position of 
 Brahminism before the coming of Sakyamuni. 
 With diligence it is possible that I might be able 
 myself to complete part of the preface before I 
 die." 
 
 "And pray, sir,*' I asked, "how long would 
 the whole work be when it was finished ?" 
 
 "The abridged edition in the Imperial Library 
 of Pekin," said my father, rubbing his hands 
 together, " consists of 325 volumes of an average 
 weight of five pounds. Then the preface, which 
 must embrace some account of the Rig-veda, the 
 S^ma-veda, the Yagur-veda and the Atharva- 
 veda, with the Brahmanas, could hardly be 
 completed in less than ten volumes. Novr if
 
 122 
 
 we apportion one volume to each year there !s 
 every prospect of the family coming to an end of 
 its task about the date 2250, the twelfth genera, 
 tion completing the work, while the thirteenth 
 might occupy itself upon the index." 
 
 " And how are our descendants to live, sir," I 
 asked with a smile, "during the progress of this 
 great undertaking ?" 
 
 " That's the worst of you, Jack," my father 
 cried, petulantly. " There is nothing practical 
 about you. Instead of confining your attention 
 to the working out of my noble scheme, you 
 begin raising all sorts of absurd objections. It 
 is a mere matter of detail how our descendants 
 live, so long as they stick to the Djarmas. Now 
 I want you to go up to the bothy of Fergus 
 McDonald and see about the thatch, and Willie 
 Fullerton has written to say that his milk-cow is 
 bad. You might look in upon your way and 
 ask after it." 
 
 I started off upon my errands, but before 
 doing so I took a look at the barometer upon the 
 wall. The mercury had sunk to the phenomenal 
 point of twenty-eight inches. Clearly the old 
 sailor had not been wrong in his interpretation 
 of Nature's signs. As I returned over the moors 
 in the evening the wind was blowing in short,
 
 123 
 
 angry puffs, and the western horizon was heaped 
 with sombre clouds which stretched their long, 
 ragged tentacles right up to the zenith. Against 
 their dark background one or two livid, sulphur, 
 colored splotches showed up malignant and 
 menacing, while the surface of the sea had 
 changed from the appearance of burnished 
 quicksilver to that of ground glass. A low, 
 moaning sound rose up from the ocean as if it 
 knew that trouble was in store for it. Far out 
 in the Channel I saw a single panting, eager 
 steam-vessel making its way to Belfast Lough, 
 and the large bark which I had observed in 
 the morning still beating about in the offing, 
 endeavoring to pass to the northward. At nine 
 o'clock a sharp breeze was blowing; at ten it 
 had freshened into a gale ; and before midnight 
 the most furious storm was raging which I can 
 remember upon that weather-beaten coast. 
 
 I sat for some time in our small, oak-panelled 
 sitting-room listening to the screeching and 
 howling of the blast and to the rattle of the 
 gravel and pebbles as they pattered against the 
 window. Nature's grim orchestra was playing 
 its world-old piece with a compass which ranged 
 from the deep diapason of the thundering surge 
 to the thin shriek of the scattered shingle and
 
 124 
 
 the keen piping of frightened sea birds. One* 
 for an instant I opened the lattice window, but a 
 gust of wind and rain came blustering through, 
 bearing with it a great sheet of sea-weed, which 
 flapped down upon the table. It was all I could 
 do to close it again in the face of the blast. My 
 sister and my father had retired to their rooms, 
 but my thoughts were too active for sleep, so I 
 continued to sit and to smoke by the smoldering 
 fire. What was going on in^ the Hall now, I 
 wondered? What did Gabriel think of the 
 storm, and how did it affect the old man who 
 wandered about in the night ? Did he welcome 
 these dread forces of nature as being of the same 
 order of things as his own tumultuous thoughts? 
 It was only four days now from the date which 
 I had been assured was to mark a crisis in his 
 fortunes. Would he regard this sudden tempest 
 as being in any way connected with the myste- 
 rious fate which threatened him ? Over all 
 these things and many more I pondered as I sat 
 by the glowing embers until they died gradually 
 ut, and the chill night air warned me that it 
 was time to retire. 
 
 I may have slept a couple of hours when I was 
 awoke by some one tugging furiously at my 
 shoulder. Sitting up in bed, I saw by the dim
 
 125 
 
 light that my father was standing half clad by 
 my bedside, and that it was his grasp which I 
 felt on my night-shirt. 
 
 " Get up, Jack, get up !" he was crying ex- 
 citedly. " There's a great ship ashore in the 
 bay, and the poor folk will all be drowned. 
 Come down, my boy, and let us see what we can 
 do." The good old man seemed to be nearly 
 beside himself with excitement and impatience. 
 
 I sprang from my bed, and was huddling on a 
 few clothes, when a dull, booming sound made 
 itself heard above the howling of the wind and 
 the thunder of the breakers. 
 
 " There it is again !" cried my father. " It is 
 their signal gun, poor creatures ! Jamieson and 
 the fishermen are below. Put your oilskin coat 
 on and the Glengarry hat. Come, come, every 
 second may mean a human life !" We hurried 
 down together and made our way to the beach, 
 accompanied by a dozen or so of the inhabitants 
 of Branksome. 
 
 The gale had increased rather than moderated, 
 and the wind screamed all round us with an 
 infernal clamor. So great was its force that 
 we had to put our shoulders against it, and bore 
 our way through it, while the sand and gravel 
 tingled up against our faces. There was just
 
 126 
 
 light enough to make out the scudding clouds 
 and the white gleam of the breakers, but beyond 
 that all was absolute darkness. We stood ankle 
 deep in the shingle and seaweed, shading our 
 eyes with our hands and peering out into the 
 inky obscurity. It seemed to me as I listened 
 that I could hear human voices loud in entreaty 
 and terror, but amid the wild turmoil of nature 
 it was difficult to distinguish one sound from 
 another. Suddenly, however, a light glimmered 
 in the heart of the tempest, and next instant the 
 beach and sky and wide tossing bay were bril- 
 liantly illuminated by the wide glare of a signal 
 light. 
 
 She lay on her beam ends right in the centre 
 of the terrible Hansel reef, hurled over to such 
 an angle that I could see all the planking of her 
 deck. I recognized her at once as being the 
 same three-masted bark which I had observed 
 in the Channel in the morning, and the Union 
 Jack which was nailed upside down to the 
 jagged stump of her mizzen proclaimed her 
 nationality. Every spar and rope and writhing 
 piece of cordage showed up hard and clear 
 under the livid light which sputtered and 
 flickered from the highest portion of the fore- 
 castle. Beyond the doomed ship out of the
 
 127 
 
 great darkness came the long, rolling linei of 
 black waves, never ending, never tiring, with a 
 petulant tuft of foam here and there upon their 
 crests. Each as it reached the broad circle of 
 unnatural light appeared to gather strength and 
 volume and to hurry on more impetuously until 
 with a roar and a jarring crash it sprang upon 
 its victim. Clinging to the weather shrouds we 
 could distinctly see ten or a dozen frightened 
 seamen, who, when the light revealed our pres- 
 ence, turned their white faces towards us and 
 waved their hands imploringly. The poor 
 wretches had evidently taken fresh hope from 
 our presence, though it was clear that their own 
 boats had either been washed away or so 
 damaged as to render them useless. 
 
 The sailors who clung to the rigging were 
 not, however, the only unfortunates aboard. On 
 the breaking poop there stood three men who 
 appeared to be both of a different race and 
 nature from the cowering wretches who im- 
 plored our assistance. Leaning upon the 
 shattered taffrail they seemed to be conversing 
 together as quietly and unconcernedly as though 
 they were unconscious of the deadly peril which 
 surrounded them. As the signal light flickered 
 over them we could see from the shore that
 
 128 
 
 these immutable strangers wore red fezes, and 
 that their faces were all of a swarthy, large- 
 featured type, which proclaimed an eastern 
 origin. There was little time, however, for us 
 to take note of such details. The ship was 
 breaking rapidly, and some effort must be made 
 to save the poor, sodden group of humanity who 
 implored our' assistance. The nearest lifeboat 
 was in the Bay of Luce, ten long miles away, 
 but here was our own broad, roomy craft upon 
 the shingle, and plenty of brave fisher lads to 
 form a crew. Six of us sprang to the oars, the 
 others pushed us off, and we fought our way 
 through the swirling, raging waters, staggering 
 and recoiling before the great, sweeping billows, 
 but still steadily decreasing the distance between 
 the bark and ourselves. 
 
 It seemed, however, that our efforts were 
 fated to be in vain. As we mounted upon a 
 surge I saw a giant wave, topping all the others, 
 and coming after them like a driver following a 
 flock, sweep down upon the vessel, curling its 
 great, green arch over the breaking deck. With 
 a rending, riving sound the ship split in two, 
 where the terrible serrated back of the Hansel 
 reef was sawing into her keel. The after-part 
 with the broken mizzen and the three Orientals
 
 lank backwards into deep water and vanished, 
 while the fore-half oscillated helplessly about, 
 retaining its precarious balance upon the rocks. 
 A wail of fear went up from the wreck and was 
 echoed from the beach, but by the blessing- of 
 Providence she kept afloat until we made our 
 way under her bowsprit and rescued every man 
 of the crew. We had not got half way upon our 
 return, however, when another great wave swept 
 the shattered forecastle off the reef, and extin- 
 guishing the signal light, hid the wild denouement 
 from our view. 
 
 Our friends upon the shore were loud in con. 
 gratulation and praise, nor were they backward 
 in welcoming and comforting the castaways. 
 They were thirteen in all, as cold and cowed a 
 Bet of mortals as ever slipped through Death's 
 fingers, save indeed their captain, who was a 
 hardy, robust man, and who made light of the 
 affair. Some were taken off to this cottage and 
 some to that, but the greater part came back to 
 Branksome with us, where we gave them such 
 dry clothes as we could lay our hands on, and 
 served them with beef and beer by the kitchen 
 fire. The captain, whose name was Meadows, 
 compressed his bulky form into a suit of my own, 
 and came down to the parlor, where he mixed
 
 himself some grog and gave my father and 
 myself an account of the disaster. 
 
 " If it hadn't been for you, sir, and your brave 
 fellows," he said, smiling across at me, " we 
 should be ten fathom deep by this time. As to 
 the ' Belinda/ she was a leaky old tub and well 
 insured, so neither the owners nor I are likely to 
 break our hearts over her." 
 
 " I am afraid," said my father, sadly, " that we 
 shall never see your three passengers again. I 
 have left men upon the beach in case they should 
 be washed up, but I fear it is hopeless. I saw 
 them go down when the vessel split, and no man 
 could have lived for a moment among that terri- 
 ble surge." 
 
 "Who were they?" I asked. "I could not 
 have believed that it was possible for men to 
 appear so unconcerned in the face of such 
 imminent peril." 
 
 " As to who they are or were," the captain 
 answered, puffing thoughtfully at his pipe," that 
 is by no means easy to say. Our last port was 
 Kurrachee, in the north of India, and there we 
 took them aboard as passengers for Glasgow. 
 Ram Singh was the name of the younger, and it 
 is only with him that I have come in contact, 
 but they all appeared to be quiet, inoffensive
 
 gentlemen. I never inquired their business, but 
 I should judge that they were Parsee merchants 
 from Hyderabad, whose trade took them to 
 Europe. I could never see why the crew should 
 fear them, and the mate, too ; he should have 
 had more sense." 
 
 " Fear them !" I ejaculated in surprise. 
 
 " Yes, they had some preposterous idea that 
 they were dangerous shipmates. I have no 
 doubt if you were to go down into the kitchen 
 now, you would find that they are all agreed that 
 our passengers were the cause of the disaster." 
 
 As the captain was speaking, the parlor door 
 opened, and the mate of the bark, a tall, red- 
 bearded sailor, stepped in. He had obtained a 
 complete rig-out from some kind-hearted fisher- 
 man, and looked in his comfortable jersey and 
 well-greased sea-boots a very favorable specimen 
 of a shipwrecked mariner. With a few words of 
 grateful acknowledgment of our hospitality he 
 drew a chair up to the fire and warmed his great, 
 brown hands before the blaze. 
 
 " What d'ye think now, Captain Meadows," 
 he asked presently, glancing up at his superior 
 officer. " Didn't I warn you what would be the 
 upshot of having those niggers on board the 
 'Belinda?'"
 
 132 
 
 The captain leaned back in his chair and 
 /aughed heartily. " Didn't I tell you ?" he cried, 
 appealing to us. " Didn't I tell you ?" 
 
 " It might have been no laughing matter for 
 us," the other remarked, petulantly. " I have 
 lost a good sea-kit and nearly lost my life into 
 the bargain." 
 
 " Do I understand you to say," said I, " that 
 you attribute your misfortunes to your ill-fated 
 passengers?" 
 
 The mate opened his eyes at the adjective. 
 Why ill-fated, sir?" he asked. 
 
 " Because they are most certainly drowned," 
 I answered. 
 
 He sniffed incredulously and went on warm- 
 Ing his hands. " Men of that kind are never 
 drowned," he said, after a pause. " Their father, 
 the devil, looks after them. Did you see them 
 standing on the poop and rolling cigarettes at 
 the time when the mizzen was carried away and 
 the quarter-boats stove ? That was enough for 
 me. I'm not surprised at you landsmen not 
 being able to take it in, but the captain, here, 
 who's been sailing since he was the height of the 
 binnacle, ought to know by this time that a cat 
 and a priest are the worst cargo you can carry. 
 If a Christian priest is bad, I guess au idolatrous
 
 133 
 
 pagan one is fifty times worse. I stand by the 
 old religion, and be d d to it I" 
 
 My father and I could not help laughing at 
 the rough sailor's very unorthodox way of 
 proclaiming his orthodoxy. The mate, how- 
 ever, was evidently in deadly earnest, and pro- 
 ceeded to state his case, marking off the different 
 points upon the rough, red fingers of his left 
 hand. 
 
 " It was at Kurrachee, directly after they 
 come, that I warned ye," he said, reproachfully, 
 to the captain. " There was three Buddhist 
 Lascars in my watch, and what did they do 
 when them chaps come aboard ? Why, they 
 down on their stomachs and rubbed their noses 
 on the deck that's what they did. They 
 wouldn't ha' done as much for an admiral of the 
 R'yal Navy. They know who's who these nig- 
 gers do ; and I smelled mischief the moment I 
 saw them on their faces. I asked them after- 
 wards in your presence, captain, why they had 
 done it, and they answered that the passengers 
 were holy men. You heard 'em yourself." 
 
 " Well, there's no harm in that, Hawkins," 
 said Captain Meadows. 
 
 " I don't know that, the mate said, doubt- 
 fully. " The holiest Christian is the one that's
 
 nearest God, but the holiest nigger is, in my 
 opinion, the one that's nearest the devil. Then 
 you saw yourself, Captain Meadows, how they 
 went on during the voyage, reading books that 
 was writ on wood instead o' paper, and sitting 
 up right through the night to jabber together on 
 the quarter-deck. What did they want to have 
 a chart of their own for and to mark the course 
 of the vessel every day ?" 
 
 " They didn't," said the captain. 
 
 " Indeed they did, and if I did not tell you 
 sooner it was because you were always ready to 
 laugh at what I said about them. They had 
 instruments o' their own when they used them 
 I can't say but every day at noon they worked 
 out the latitude and longitude, and marked out 
 the vessel's position on a chart that was pinned 
 on their cabin table. I saw them at it, and so 
 did the steward from his pantry." 
 
 " Well, I don't see what you prove from that," 
 the captain remarked, " though I confess it is a 
 strange thing." 
 
 " I'll tell you another strange thing," said the 
 mate, impressively. " Do you know the name 
 of this bay in which we are cast away ?" 
 
 " I have learned from our kind friends here 
 that we arc upon the Wigtownshire coast," the
 
 135 
 
 captain answered, " but I have not heard the 
 name of the bay." 
 
 The mate leaned forward with a grave face. 
 " It is the Bay of Kirkmaiden," he said. 
 
 If he expected to astonish Captain Meadows 
 he certainly succeeded, for that gentleman was 
 fairly bereft of speech for a minute or more. 
 " That is really marvellous," he said, after a 
 time, turning to us. " These passengers of ours 
 cross-questioned us early in the voyage as to 
 the existence of a bay of that name. Hawkins 
 here and I denied all knowledge of one, for on 
 the chart it is included in the Bay of Luce. 
 That we should eventually be blown into it and 
 destroyed is an extraordinary coincidence." 
 
 " Too extraordinary to be a coincidence," 
 growled the mate. " I saw them during the 
 calm yesterday morning, pointing to the land 
 over our starboard quarter. They knew well 
 enough that that was the port they were mak- 
 ing for." 
 
 " What do you make of it all, then, Hawkins ?" 
 asked the captain with a troubled face ; " what 
 is your own theory on the matter?" 
 
 " Why, in my opinion," the mate answered, 
 " them three swabs have no more difficulty in 
 raising a gale o* wind than I should have in
 
 1 3 6 
 
 swallowing this here grog. They had reasons o* 
 their own for coming to this God-forsaken sav- 
 ing your presence, sirs this God-forsaken bay, 
 and they took a short cut to it by arranging to 
 be blown ashore there. That's my idea o' the 
 matter, though what three Buddhist priests could 
 find to do in the Bay of Kirkmaiden is clean past 
 my comprehension." 
 
 My father raised his eyebrows to indicate the 
 doubt which his hospitality forbade him from 
 putting into words. " I think, gentlemen," he 
 said, " that you are both sorely in need of rest 
 after your perilous adventures. If you will fol- 
 low me I shall lead you to your rooms." He 
 conducted them with old-fashioned ceremony to 
 the laird's best spare bedroom, and then return- 
 ing to me in the parlor, proposed that we should 
 go down together to the beach and learn 
 whether anything fresh had occurred. 
 
 The first pale light of dawn was just appear- 
 ing in the east when we made our way for the 
 second time to the scene of the shipwreck. The 
 gale had blown itself out, but the sea was still 
 very high, and all inside the breakers was a 
 seething, gleaming line of foam, as though the 
 fierce old ocean was gnashing its white teeth at 
 the victims who had escaped from its clutches.
 
 137 
 
 All along the beach the fishermen and crofters 
 were hard at work hauling up spars and barrels 
 as fast as they were tossed ashore. None of 
 them had seen any bodies, however, and they 
 explained to us that only such things as could 
 float had any chance of coming ashore, for the 
 undercurrent was so strong that whatever was 
 beneath the surface must infallibly be swept out 
 to sea. As to the possibility of the unfortnate 
 passengers having been able to reach the shore, 
 these practical men would not hear of it for a 
 moment, and showed us conclusively that if they 
 had not been drowned they must have been 
 dashed to pieces upon the rocks. 
 
 " We did all that could be done," my father 
 said, as we returned home. " I am afraid that 
 the poor mate has had his reason affected by the 
 suddenness of the disaster. Did you hear what 
 he said about Buddhist priests raising a gale ?" 
 
 " Yes, I heard him," said I. 
 
 " It was very paintul to listen to him," said my 
 father. " I wonder if he would object to my 
 putting a small mustard plaster under each 
 of his ears. It would relieve any congestion of 
 the brain. Or perhaps it would be best to wake 
 him up and give him two antibilious pills. What 
 do you think, Jack?"
 
 " I think," said I with a yawn, " that you had 
 best let him sleep, and go to sleep yourself. 
 You can physic him in the morning if he needs 
 it." So saying I stumbled off to my bedroom, 
 and throwing myself upon the couch, was soon 
 in a dreamless slumber.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 OF THE THREE FOREIGN MEN UPON THE COAST. 
 
 IT must have been eleven or twelve o'clock 
 before I woke up, and it seemed to me, in the 
 flood of golden light which streamed into my 
 chamber, that the wild, tumultuous episodes of 
 the night before must have formed part of some 
 fantastic dream. It was hard to believe that the 
 gentle breeze which whispered so softly among 
 the ivy-leaves around my window was caused 
 by the same element which had shaken the very 
 house a few short hours before. It was as if 
 Nature had repented of her momentary passion 
 and was endeavoring to make amends to an in- 
 jured world by its warmth and its sunshine. A 
 chorus of birds in the garden below filled the 
 whole air with their wonder and congratula- 
 tions. 
 
 Down in the hall I found a number of the ship, 
 wrecked sailors, looking all the better for their 
 night's repose, who setup a buzz of pleasure and 
 gratitude upon seeing me. Arrangements had 
 been made to drive them to Wigtown, whence
 
 140 
 
 they were to proceed to Glasgow by the evea. 
 ing train, and my father had given orders that 
 each should be served with a packet of sand- 
 wiches and hard-boiled eggs to sustain him on 
 the way. Captain Meadows thanked us warmly 
 in the name of his employers for the manner in 
 which we had treated them, and he called for 
 three cheers from his crew, which were very 
 heartily given. He and the mate walked down 
 with us after we had broken our fast, to have a 
 last look at the scene of his disaster. 
 
 The great bosom of the bay was still heaving 
 convulsively, and its waves were breaking into 
 sobs against the rocks, but there was none of 
 that wild turmoil which we had seen in the early 
 morning. The long emerald ridges, with their 
 smart little cockades of foam, rolled slowly and 
 majestically in, to break with a regular rhythm 
 the panting of a tired monster. A cable 
 length from the shore, we could see the main- 
 mast of the bark floating upon the waves, dis- 
 appearing at times in the trough of the sea, and 
 then shooting up towards heaven like a giant 
 javelin, as the rollers tossed it about. Other 
 smaller pieces of wreckage dotted the 
 waters, while innumerable spars and packages 
 were littered over the sands. These were
 
 141 
 
 being drawn up and collected in a place of safety 
 by gangs of peasants. I noticed that a couple of 
 broad-winged gulls were hovering and skimming 
 over the scene of the shipwreck as though many 
 strange things were visible to them beneath the 
 waves. At times we could hear their raucous 
 voices as they spoke to one another of what they 
 saw. 
 
 " She was a leaky old craft," said the captain, 
 looking sadly out to sea ; " but there's always a 
 feeling of sorrow when we see the last of a ship 
 we have sailed in. Well, well, she would have 
 been broken up in any case, and sold for fire- 
 wood." 
 
 " It looks a peaceful scene," I remarked. 
 " Who would imagine that three men lost their 
 lives last night in those very waters?" 
 
 "Poor fellows," said the captain, with feeling. 
 " Should they be cast up after our departure, I 
 am sure, Mr. West, that you will have them 
 decently interred.'* 
 
 I was about to make some reply when the 
 mate burst into a loud guffaw, slapping his thigh 
 and choking with merriment. "If you want to 
 bury them," he said, "you had best look sharp, 
 or they may clear out of the country. You 
 remember what I said last night. Just lo.Q.k at
 
 143 
 
 the top of that 'ere hillock, and tell me whether 
 I was in the right or not?" 
 
 There was a high sand dune some little dis- 
 tance along the coast, and upon the summit of 
 this the figure was standing which had attracted 
 the mate's attention. The captain threw up his 
 hands in astonishment as his eyes rested upon it. 
 " By the eternal," he shouted, " it's Ram Singh 
 himself I Let us overhaul him 1" Taking to his 
 heels in his excitement he raced along the beach, 
 followed by the mate and myself, as well as by 
 one or two of the fishermen who had observed 
 the presence of the stranger. The latter, per. 
 ceiving our approach, came down from his post 
 of observation and walked quietly in our direc- 
 tion, with his head sunk upon his breast, like one 
 who is absorbed in thought. 
 
 I could not help contrasting our hurried and 
 tumultuous advance with the gravity and dignity 
 of this lonely Oriental, nor was the matter 
 mended when he raised a pair of steady, thought- 
 ful dark eyes and inclined his head in a graceful, 
 sweeping salutation. It seemed to me that we 
 were like a pack of schoolboys in the presence 
 of a master. The stranger's broad, unruffled 
 brow, his clear, searching gaze, firm-set yet sensi- 
 tive mouth, and clean-cut, resolute expression,
 
 MS 
 
 all combined to form the most imposing and 
 noble 1 presence which I have ever known. I 
 could not have imagined that such imperturbable 
 calm and at the same time such a consciousness 
 of latent strength could have been expressed by 
 any human face. He was dressed in a brown 
 velveteen coat, loose, dark trousers, with a shirt 
 which was cut low in the collar, so as to show 
 the muscular brow neck, and he still wore the 
 red fez which I had noticed the night before. I 
 observed with a feeling of surprise, as we 
 approached him, that none of these garments 
 showed the slightest indication of the rough 
 treatment and wetting which they must have 
 received during their wearer's submersion and 
 struggle to the shore. 
 
 " So you are none the worse for your ducking,'* 
 he said in a pleasant, musical voice, looking from 
 the captain to the mate. " I hope that all your 
 poor sailors have found pleasant quarters." 
 
 " We are all safe," the captain answered. 
 " But we had given you up for lost you and your 
 two friends. Indeed I was just making arrange- 
 ments for your burial with Mr. West here." 
 
 The stranger looked at me and smiled. " We 
 won't give Mr. West that trouble for a little 
 time yet," he remarked : " my friends and I came 1
 
 144 
 
 ashore all safe, and we have found shelter in a 
 hut a mile or so down the coast. It is lonely 
 down there, but we have everything which we 
 *can desire." 
 
 " We start for Glasgow this afternoon," said 
 the captain ; " I shall be very glad if you will 
 come with us. If you have not been in England 
 before you may find it awkward traveling 
 alone." 
 
 " We are very much indebted to you for your 
 thoughtfulness," Ram Singh answered; " but 
 we will not take advantage of your kind offer. 
 Since Nature has driven us here we intend to 
 have a look about us before we leave." 
 
 "As you like," the captain said, shrugging his 
 shoulders. " I don't think you are likely to fin* 
 very much to interest you in this hole of a 
 place." 
 
 * Very possibly not," Ram Singh answered 
 >nth an amused smile. " You remember Milton's 
 Macs: 
 
 The mind is (ts own place, and In itself 
 Can make a hell of heaven, a heaven of helL' 
 
 I daresay we can spend a few days here com. 
 fortably enough. Indeed, I think } r ou must bo 
 Wrong in considering this to be a barbarous 
 locality. I am much mistaken if this young
 
 us 
 
 gentleman's father is not Mr. James Hunter 
 West, whose name is known and honored by the 
 pundits of India." 
 
 " My father is, indeed, a well-known Sanscrit 
 scholar," I answered, in astonishment. 
 
 " The presence of such a man," observed the 
 stranger, slowly, " changes a wilderness into a 
 city. One great mind is surely a higher indica- 
 tion of civilization than are incalculable leagues 
 of bricks, and mortar. Your father is hardly as 
 profound as Sir William Jones, or as universal 
 as the Baron Von Hammer-Purgstall, but he 
 combines many of the virtues of each. You may 
 tell him, however, from me that he is mistaken 
 in the analogy which he has traced between the 
 Samoyede and Tamulic word roots." 
 
 " If you have determined to honor our neigh- 
 borhood by a short stay," said I, " you will of- 
 fend my father very much if you do not put up 
 with him. He represents the laird here, and it 
 is the laird's privilege, according to our Scottish 
 custom, to entertain all strangers of repute who 
 visit his parish." My sense of hospitality 
 prompted me to deliver this invitation, though I 
 could feel the mate twitching at my sleeve as 
 if to warn me that the offer was, for some reason, 
 an objectionable one. His fears mere, however,
 
 unnecessary, for the stranger signified by a shako 
 of the head that it was impossible for him to 
 accept it. 
 
 " My friends and I are very much obliged to 
 you," he said, " but we have our own reasons for 
 remaining where we are. The hut which we 
 occupy is deserted and partly ruined, but we 
 Easterns have trained ourselves to do without 
 most of those things which are looked upon as 
 necessaries in Europe, believing firmly in that 
 wise axiom that a man is rich, not in proportion 
 to what he has, but in proportion to what he can 
 dispense with. A good fisherman supplies us 
 with bread and with herbs, we have clean, dry 
 straw for our couches, what could man wish for 
 more ?" 
 
 " But you must feel the cold at night, coming 
 straight from the tropics," remarked the cap- 
 tain. 
 
 " Perhaps our bodies are cold sometimes. We 
 have not noticed it. We have all three spent 
 many years in the Upper Himalayas, on the 
 border of the region of eternal snow, so we are 
 not very sensitive to inconveniences of the sort.*' 
 
 " At least," said I, " you must allow me to send 
 you over some fish and some meat from our 
 larder."
 
 147 
 
 " We are not Christians," he answered, " but 
 Buddhists of the higher school. We do not 
 recognize that man has a moral right to slay an 
 ox or a fish for the gross use of his human body. 
 He has not put life into them, and has assuredly 
 no mandate from the Almighty to take life from 
 them save under the most pressing need. We 
 could not, therefore, use your gift if you were to 
 send it." 
 
 " But, sir," 1 remonstrated, " if in this change- 
 able and inhospitable climate you refuse all 
 nourishing food, your vitality will fail you you 
 will die." 
 
 " We shall die, then," he answered, with a 
 bright smile. " And now, Captain Meadows, I 
 must bid you adieu, thanking you for your kind- 
 ness during the voyage, and you, too, good-by 
 you will command a ship of your own before the 
 year is out. I trust, Mr. West, that I may see 
 you again before I leave this part of the country. 
 Farewell !" 
 
 He raised his red fez, inclined his noble head 
 with the stately grace which characterized all 
 his actions, and strode away in the direction from 
 which he had come. 
 
 " Let me congratulate you, Mr. Hawkins," 
 said the captain to the mate, as we walked home
 
 148 
 
 wards. " You are to command your own ship 
 within the year." 
 
 " No such luck," the mate answered, with a 
 pleased smile upon his mahogany face ; " still 
 there's no saying how things may come out. 
 What d'ye think of him, Mr. West !" 
 
 " Why," said I, " I am very much interested in 
 him. What a magnificent head and bearing he 
 has for a young man. I suppose he cannot be 
 more than thirty." 
 
 " Forty," said the mate. 
 
 " Sixty, if he is a day," remarked Captain 
 Meadows. " Why, I have heard him talk quite 
 familiarly of the first Afghan war. He was a 
 man then, and that is close on forty years ago." 
 
 " Wonderful !" I ejaculated. " His skin is as 
 smooth and his eyes are as clear as mine are. 
 He is the superior priest of the three, no doubt." 
 
 " The inferior," said the captain, confidently. 
 " That is why he does all the talking for them. 
 Their minds are too elevated to descend to mere 
 worldly chatter." 
 
 " They are the strangest pieces of flotsam and 
 jetsam that ever was thrown upon this coast," I 
 remarked. " My father will be mightily inter, 
 ested in them.*' 
 
 " Indeed, I think the fesy **ou have to do with
 
 149 
 
 them the better for you," said the mate. " If I 
 do command my own ship I'll promise you that 
 I never carry live stock of that sort on board of 
 her. But here we are all aboard and the anchor 
 tripped, so we must bid you good-by." 
 
 The wagonette had just finished loading up 
 when we arrived, and the chief places, on either 
 side of the driver, had been reserved for my two 
 companions, who speedily sprang into them. 
 With a chorus of cheers the good fellows whirled 
 away down the road, while my father, Esther 
 and I stood upon the lawn and waved our hands 
 to them until they disappeared behind the 
 Cloomber woods, en route for the Wigtown rail- 
 way station. Bark and crew had both vanished 
 now from our little world, the only relic of either 
 being the heaps of debris upon the beach, which 
 were to lie there until the arrival of an agent 
 from Lloyd's.
 
 i$o 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 IN WHICH I SEE THAT WHICH HAS BEEN SEEN BY- 
 FEW. 
 
 AT dinner that evening I mentioned to my 
 father the episode of the three Buddhist priests, 
 and found, as I had expected, that he was very 
 much interested by my account of them. When, 
 however, he heard of the high manner in which 
 Ram Singh had spoken of him, and the dis- 
 tinguished position which he had assigned him 
 among philologists, he became so excited that it 
 was all we could do to prevent him from setting 
 off then and there to make his acquaintance. 
 Esther and I were relieved and glad when we 
 at last succeeded in abstracting his boots and 
 maneuvering him to his bedroom, for the excit- 
 ing events of the last twenty-four hours had 
 been too much for his weak frame and delicate 
 nerves. 
 
 I was sitting at the open porch in the gloam- 
 ing, turning over in my mind the unexpected 
 events which had occurred so rapidly the gale, 
 the wreck, the rescue, and the strange character
 
 of the castaways when my sister came quietly 
 over to me and put her hand in mine. 
 
 " Don't you think, Jack," she said, in her low, 
 sweet voice, " that we are forgetting our friends 
 over at Cloomber? Hasn't all this excitement 
 driven their fears and their danger out oi our 
 heads ?" 
 
 <k Cut of our heads, but never out of our 
 hearts," said I, laughing. " However, you are 
 right, little one, for our attention has certainly 
 been distracted from them. I shall walk up in 
 the morning and see if 1 can see anything of 
 them. By the way, to-morrow is the fateful 5th 
 of October one more day and all will be well 
 with us." 
 
 " Or ill," said my sister, gloomily. 
 
 " Why, what a little croaker you are, to be 
 sure !" I cried. " What in the world is coming 
 over you ?" 
 
 " I feel nervous and low-spirited," she 
 answered, drawing closer to my side and shiver- 
 ing. " I feel as if some great peril were hanging 
 over the heads of those we love. Why should 
 these strange men wish to stay upon the 
 coast ?" 
 
 "What, the Buddhists?" I said, lightly. 
 " Oh, these fellows have continual feast days
 
 152 
 
 and religious rites of all sorts. They have 
 some very good reason for staying, you may be 
 sure." 
 
 "Don't you think," said Esther, in an awe- 
 struck whisper, " that it is very strange that these 
 priests should arrive here all the way from India 
 just at the present moment ? Have you not 
 gathered from all you have heard that the gen- 
 eral's fears are in some way connected with India 
 and the Indians?" 
 
 The remark made me thoughtful. " Why, now 
 that you mention it," I answered, " I have some 
 vague impression that the mystery is connected 
 with some incident which occurred in that 
 country. I am sure, however, that your fears 
 would vanish if you saw Ram Singh. He is the 
 very personification of wisdom and benevolence. 
 He was shocked at the idea of our killing a sheep, 
 or even a fish for his benefit said he would 
 rather die than have a hand in taking the life of 
 an animal." 
 
 " It is very foolish of me to be so nervous," said 
 my sister, bravely. " But you must promise me 
 one thing, Jack. You will go up to Cloomberin 
 the morning, and if you can see any of them you 
 must tell them of these strange neighbors of 
 ours. They are better able to judge than we are
 
 153 
 
 whether their oresence has any significance or 
 not." 
 
 " All right, little one," I answered, as we went 
 indoors. " You have been over-excited by all 
 these wild doings, and you need a sound night's 
 rest to compose you. I'll do what you suggest, 
 however, and our friends shall judge for them- 
 selves whether these poor devils should be sent 
 about their business or not." 
 
 I made the promise to allay my sister's appre- 
 hensions, but in the bright sunlight of morning 
 it appeared little less than absurd to imagine 
 that our poor, vegetarian castaways could have 
 any sinister intentions, or that their ad vent could 
 have any effect upon the tenant of Cloomber. I 
 was anxious myself, however, to see whether I 
 could see anything of the Heatherstones, so after 
 breakfast I walked up to the Hall. In their 
 seclusion it was impossible for them to have 
 learned anything of the recent events. I felt, 
 therefore, that even if I should meet the general 
 he could hardly regard me as an intruder while 
 I had so much news to communicate. 
 
 The place had the same dreary and melan- 
 choly appearance which always characterized it. 
 Looking through between the thick iron bars of 
 the main gateway there was nothing to be seea
 
 154 
 
 of any of the occupants. One of the great 
 Scotch firs had been blown down in the gale, and 
 its long, ruddy trunk lay right across the grass- 
 grown avenue ; but no attempt had been made 
 to remove it. Everything about the property 
 had the same air* of desolation and neglect, with 
 the solitary exception of the massive and impen- 
 etrable fencing, which presented as unbroken 
 and formidable an obstacle as ever to the would- 
 be trespasser. 
 
 I walked round this barrier as far as our old 
 trysting-place without finding any flaw through 
 which 1 could get a glimpse of the house, for 
 the fence had been erected with each rail over- 
 lapping the last, so as to secure absolute privacy 
 for those inside. At the old spot, however, 
 where I had had the memorable interview with 
 the general on the occasion when he surprised 
 me with his daughter, I found that the two 
 loose rails had been refixed in such a manner 
 that there was a gap of two inches or more 
 between them. Through this I had a view of 
 the house and of part of the lawn in front of it, 
 and though I could see no signs of life outside 
 or at any of the windows, I settled down with 
 the intention of sticking to my post until I had a 
 chance of speaking to one or other of the in*
 
 mates. Indeed, the cold, dead aspect of the 
 house had struck such a chill into my heart that 
 I determined to scale the fence at whatever risk 
 of incurring the general's displeasure rather 
 than return without news of the Heatherstones. 
 
 Happily there was no need of this extreme 
 expedient, for I had not been there half-an-hour 
 before I heard the harsh sound of an opening 
 lock, and the general himself emerged from the 
 main door. To my surprise he was dressed in a 
 military uniform and that not the uniform in 
 ordinary use in the British army. The red coat 
 was strangely cut and stained with the weather. 
 The trousers had originally been white, but had 
 now faded to a dirty yellow. With a red sash 
 across his chest and a straight sword hanging 
 from his side he stood the living example of a 
 by-gone type the John Company's officer of 
 forty years ago. He was followed by the ex- 
 tramp, Corporal Rufus Smith, now well clad 
 and prosperous, who limped along beside his 
 master, the two pacing up and down the lawn 
 absorbed in conversation. I observed that from 
 time to time one or other of them would pause 
 and glance furtively all about them, as though 
 guarding keenly against a surprise. 
 
 I should have preferred communicating with
 
 IS* 
 
 the general alone, but since there was no disso- 
 ciating him from his companion, I beat loudly 
 on the fencing with my stick to attract their 
 attention. They both faced round in a moment, 
 and I could see from their gestures that they 
 were disturbed and alarmed. I then elevated 
 my stick above the barrier to show them where 
 the sound proceeded from. At this the general 
 began to walk in my direction with the air of a 
 man who is bracing himself for an effort, but the 
 other caught him by the wrist and endeavored 
 to dissuade him. It was only when I shouted 
 out my name and assured them that I was alone 
 that I could prevail upon them to approach. 
 Once assured of my identity the general ran 
 eagerly towards me and greeted me with the 
 utmost cordiality. 
 
 " This is truly kind of you, West," he said. 
 " It is only at such times as these that one can 
 judge who is a friend and who not. It would 
 not be fair to you to ask you to come inside or 
 to stay any time, but I am none the less very 
 glad to see you." 
 
 " I have been anxious about you all," I said ; 
 "for it is some little time since I have seen or 
 heard from any of you. How have you all been 
 keeping ?" ,
 
 157 
 
 " Why, as well as could be expected. But w 
 will be better to-morrow we will be different 
 men to-morrow, eh, corporal ?" 
 
 " Yes, sir," said the corporal, raising his hand 
 to his forehead in a military salute. " We'll be 
 right as the bank to-morrow." 
 
 " The corporal and I are a little disturbed in 
 our minds just now, "the general explained, " but 
 I have no doubt that all will come right. After 
 all, there is nothing higher than Providence, and 
 we are all in its hands. And how have you 
 been, eh ?" 
 
 " We have been very busy for one thing," said 
 I. " I suppose you have heard nothing of the 
 great shipwreck ?" 
 
 " Not a word," the general answered, listlessly. 
 
 " I thought the noise of the wind would pre- 
 vent you hearing the signal guns. She came 
 ashore in the bay the night before last a great 
 bark from India." 
 
 "From India!" ejaculated the general. 
 
 " Yes. Her crew were saved, fortunately, 
 and have all been sent on to Glasgow." 
 
 " All sent on !" cried the general, with a face 
 as bloodless as a corpse. 
 
 4< All except three rather strange characters 
 who claim to be Buddhist priests. They have
 
 I 5 8 
 
 decided to remain for a few days upon the 
 coast." 
 
 The words were hardly out of my mouth when 
 the general dropped upon his knees with his 
 long, thin arms extended to heaven. " Thy will 
 be done!" he cried in a crackling voice. "Thy 
 blessed will be done !" I could see through the 
 crack that Corporal Rufus Smith's face had 
 turned to a sickly yellow shade, and that he was 
 wiping the perspiration from his brow. 
 
 " It's like my luck !" he said. " After all these 
 years, to come just when I have got a snug 
 billet." 
 
 " Never mind, my lad," the general said, rising 
 and squaring his shoulders like a man who braces 
 himself for an effort. " Be it what it may we'll 
 face it as British soldiers should. D'ye remem- 
 ber at Chillianwallah, when you had to run from 
 your guns to our square, and the Sikh horse 
 came thundering down on our bayonets ? We 
 didn't flinch then, and we won't flinch now. It 
 seems to me that I feel better than I have done 
 for years. It was the uncertainty that was kill- 
 ing me," 
 
 " And the infernal jingle-jangle," said the cor- 
 poral. " Well, we all go together that's some 
 consolation."
 
 159 
 
 " Good-bye, West," said the general. " Be a 
 good husband to Gabriel, and give my poor wife 
 a home. I don't think she will trouble you long. 
 Good-bye ! God bless you !" 
 
 " Look here, general," I said, peremptorily, 
 breaking off a piece of wood to make communi- 
 cation more easy, " this sort of thing has been 
 going on too long. What are these hints and 
 allusions and innuendoes? It is time we had a 
 little plain speaking. What is it you fear? Out 
 with it ! Are you in dread of these Hindoos ? 
 If you are I am able, on my father's authority, to 
 have them arrested as rogues and vagabonds." 
 
 " No, no, that would never do," he answered, 
 shaking his head. "You will learn about the 
 wretched business soon enough. Mordaunt 
 knows where to lay his hand upon the papers 
 bearing on the matter. You can consult him 
 about it to-morrow." 
 
 " But surely," I cried, " if the per:' 1 is so immi- 
 nent something may be done to aver*, it. If you 
 would but tell me what you fear I should know 
 how to act." 
 
 " My dear friend," he said, " there is nothing 
 to be done, so calm yourself; and let things take 
 their course. It has been folly on my part to 
 shelter myself behind ro<?re barriers of wood and
 
 i6o 
 
 stone. The fact is, that inaction was terrible to 
 me, and I felt that to do anything, however 
 futile, in the nature of a precaution, was better 
 than passive resignation. My humble friend 
 here and I have placed ourselves in a position in 
 which, I trust, no poor fellow will ever find him- 
 self again. We can only recommend ourselves 
 to the unfailing goodness of the Almighty, and 
 trust that what we have endured in this world 
 may lessen our atonement in the world to come. 
 I must leave you now, for I have many papers 
 to destroy and much to arrange. Good-bye." 
 He pushed his hand through the hole which I 
 had made and grasped mine in a solemn farewell, 
 after which he walked back to the Hall with a 
 firm and decided step, still followed by the 
 crippled corporal. 
 
 I walked back to Branksome much disturbed 
 by this interview, and extremely puzzled as to 
 what course I should pursue. It was evident 
 now that my sister's suspicions were correct, and 
 that there was some very intimate connection 
 between the presence of the three Orientals and 
 the mysterious peril which hung over the towers 
 of Cloomber. It was difficult for me to associate 
 the noble-faced Ram Singh's gentle, refined 
 manner and words of wisdom with any ded of
 
 Violence ; yet now that I thought of it I could 
 see that a terrible capacity for wrath lay behind 
 his shaggy brows and dark, piercing eyes. I 
 felt that of all men whom I had ever met he was 
 the one whose displeasure I should least care to 
 face. But how could two men so widely 
 dissociated as the foul-mouthed old corporal of 
 artillery and the distinguished Anglo-Indian 
 general have each earned the ill-will of these 
 strange castaways? And if the danger was a 
 positive, physical one, why should he not consent 
 to my proposal to have the three men placed 
 under custody ? though I confess it would have 
 gone much against my grain to act in so inhos- 
 pitable a manner upon such vague and shadowy 
 grounds. These questions were absolutely un- 
 answerable ; and yet the solemn words and the 
 terrible gravity which I had seen in the faces of 
 both the old soldiers forbade me from thinking 
 that their fears were entirely unfounded. It 
 was all a puzzle an absolutely insoluble puzzle. 
 One thing at least was clear to me and that was 
 tha2 in the present state of my knowledge, and 
 after the general's distinct prohibition, it was 
 impossible for me to interfere in any way. I 
 could only wait and pray that, whatever the 
 danger might be, it might pass over, or at least
 
 162 
 
 that my dear Gabriel and her brother might be 
 protected against it. 
 
 I was walking down the lane lost in thought, 
 and had got as far as the wicket gate which 
 opens upon the Branksome lawn, when I was 
 surprised to hear my father's voice raised in 
 most animated and excited converse. The old 
 man had been of late so abstracted from the 
 daily affairs of the world, and so absorbed in his 
 own special studies, that it was difficult to engage 
 his attention upon any ordinary mundane topic. 
 Curious to know what it was that had drawn him 
 so far out of himself, I opened the gate softly, 
 and walking quietly round the laurel bushes, 
 found him sitting, to my astonishment, with none 
 other than the very man who was occupying my 
 thoughts, Ram Singh, the Buddhist. The two 
 were sitting upon a garden bench, and the 
 Oriental appeared to be laying down some 
 weighty proposition, checking every point upon 
 his long, quivering, brown fingers, while mj 
 father, with his hands thrown abroad and his face 
 awry, was loud in protestation and in argument. 
 So absorbed were they in their controversy that 
 I stood within a hand-touch of them for a minute 
 or more before they became conscious of my 
 presence. On observing me the priest sprang to
 
 his feet and greeted me with the same lofty 
 courtesy and dignified grace which had so 
 impressed me the day before. 
 
 " I promised myself yesterday," he said, " the 
 pleasure of calling upon your father. You see I 
 nave kept my word. I have even been daring 
 enough to question his views upon some points 
 in connection with the Sanscrit and Hindoo 
 tongues, with the result that we have been argu- 
 ing for an hour or more without either of us 
 convincing the other. Without pretending to 
 as deep a theoretical knowledge as that which 
 has made the name of James Hunter West a 
 household word among Oriental scholars, I hap- 
 pen to have given considerable attention to this 
 one point, and indeed I am in a position to say 
 that I know his views to be unsound. I assure 
 you, sir, that up to the year 700, or even later, 
 Sanscrit was the ordinary language of the great 
 bulk of the inhabitants of India." 
 
 " And I assure you, sir," said my father warmly, 
 " that it was dead and forgotten at that date, 
 save by the learned who used it as a vehicle for 
 scientific and religious works just as Latin was 
 used in the middle ages long after it had ceased 
 to be spoken by any European nation." 
 
 " If you will consult the puranas you will
 
 i6 4 
 
 find," said Ram Singh, " that this theory, though 
 commonly received, is entirely untenable." 
 
 "And if you will consult the Ramayana, and 
 more particularly the canonical books on Budd- 
 hist discipline," cried my father, " you will find 
 that the theory is unassailable." 
 
 " But look at the Kullavagga," said our visitor, 
 earnestly. 
 
 " And look at King Asoka," shouted my father, 
 triumphantly. " When, in the year 300 before 
 the Christian era before, mind you he ordered 
 the laws of Buddha to be engraved upon the 
 rocks, what language did he employ, eh ? Was 
 it Sanscrit? no ! And why was it not Sanscrit? 
 Because the lower orders of his subjects would 
 not have been able to understand a word of it. 
 Ha I ha ! That was the reason. How are you 
 going to get round King Asoka's edict, eh?" 
 
 " He carved them in the various dialects," 
 Ram Singh answered. " But energy is too pre- 
 cious a thing to be wasted in mere wind in this 
 style. The sun has passed its meridian, and I 
 must return to my companions." 
 
 " I am sorry that you have not brought them 
 to see us," said my father, courteously. He was, 
 I could see, uneasy lest in the eagerness of debate 
 he had overstepped the bounds of hospitality.
 
 
 " They do not mix with the world," Ram 
 Singh answered, rising to his feet. " They are 
 of a higher grade than I, and more sensitive to 
 contaminating influences. They are immersed 
 in a six months' meditation upon the mystery of 
 the third incarnation, which has lasted from the 
 time that we left the Himalayas. I shall not see 
 you again, Mr. Hunter West, and I therefore bid 
 you farewell. Your old age will be a happy 
 one, as it deserves to be, and your Eastern stud- 
 ies Will have a lasting effect upon the knowledge 
 and literature of your own country. Farewell !" 
 
 44 And am I also to see no more of you ?" I 
 asked. 
 
 " Unless you will walk with me along the sea- 
 shore," he answered. " But you have already 
 been out this morning, and may be tired. I ask 
 too much of you." 
 
 " Nay, I should be delighted to come," I re- 
 sponded from my heart, and we set off together, 
 accompanied for some little distance by my 
 father, who would gladly, I could see, have re- 
 opened the Sanscrit controversy, had not his 
 stock of breath been too limited to allow of his 
 talking and walking at the same time. 
 
 " He is a learned man," Ram Singh remarked, 
 after we had left him behind ; " but, like many
 
 i66 
 
 another, he is intolerant towards opinions which 
 differ from his own. He will know better some 
 day." 
 
 I made no answer to this observation, and we 
 trudged along for a time in silence, keeping well 
 down to the water's edge, where the sands 
 afforded a good foothold. The sand dunes which 
 lined the coast formed a continuous ridge upon 
 our left, cutting us off entirely from all human 
 observation, while on the right the broad Chan- 
 nel stretched away with hardly a sail to break its 
 silvery uniformity. The Buddhist priest and I 
 were absolutely alone with Nature. I could not 
 help reflecting that if he were really the danger- 
 ous man that the mate affected to consider him, 
 or that might be inferred from the words of 
 General Heatherstone, I had placed myself com- 
 pletely in his power. Yet such was the majestic 
 benignity of the man's aspect, and the unruffled 
 serenity of his deep, dark eyes, that I could afford 
 in his presence to let fear and suspicion blow past 
 me as lightly as the breeze which whistled round 
 us. His face might be stern, and even terrible, 
 but I felt that he could never be unjust. As I 
 glanced from time to time at his noble profile 
 and the sweep of his jet-black beard, his rough- 
 spun tweed travelling suit struck me with an
 
 ,6 7 
 
 almost painful sense of incongruity, and I 
 re-clothed him in my imagination with the grand, 
 sweeping Oriental costume which is the fitting 
 and proper frame for such a picture the only 
 garb which does not detract from the dignity , 
 and grace of the wearer. The place to which he 
 led me was a small fisher cottage which had been 
 deserted some years before by its tenant, but still 
 stood gaunt and bare, with the thatch partly 
 blown away and the windows and door in sad 
 disrepair. This dwelling, which the poorest 
 Scotch beggar would have shrunk from, was the 
 one which these singular men had preferred 
 to the proffered hospitality of the laird's house. 
 A small garden, now a mass of tangled brambles, 
 stood round it, and through this my acquaintance 
 picked his way to the ruined door. He glanced 
 into the house and then waved his hand for me 
 to follow him. 
 
 " You have now an opportunity," he said, in a 
 subdued, reverential voice, " of seeing a spectacle 
 which few Europeans have had the privilege of 
 beholding. Inside that cottage you will find two 
 Yogis men who are only one remove from the 
 highest plane of adeptship. They are both 
 wrapped in an ecstatic trance, otherwise I should 
 not venture to obtrude your presence upon them.
 
 i68 
 
 Their astral bodies have departed from them, to 
 be present at the feast of lamps in the holy lam- 
 astery of Rudok in Thibet Tread lightly, lest 
 by stimulating their corporeal functions you 
 recall them before their devotions are com- 
 pleted." 
 
 Walking slowly and on tiptoe, I picked my 
 way through the weed-grown garden, and peered 
 through the open doorway. There was no 
 furniture in the dreary interior, nor anything to 
 cover the uneven floor save a litter of fresh straw 
 in a corner. 
 
 Among this straw two men were crouching, 
 the one small and wizened, the other large- 
 boned and gaunt, with their legs crossed in Ori- 
 ential fashion and their heads sunk upon their 
 breasts. Neither of them looked up, or took the 
 smallest notice of our presence. They were so 
 still and silent that they might have been two 
 bronze statues but for the slow and measured 
 rhythm of their breathing. Their faces, however, 
 had a peculiar, ashen grey color, very different 
 from the healthy brown of my companion's ; and 
 I observed, on stooping my head, that only the 
 whites of their eyes were visible, the balls being 
 turned upwards beneath the lids. In front of 
 them upon a small mat lay an earthenware
 
 I6 9 
 
 pitcher of water and half a loaf of bread, to- 
 gether with a sheet of paper inscribed with cer- 
 tain cabalistic characters. Ram Singh glanced 
 at these, and then, motioning to me to withdraw, 
 followed me out into the garden. 
 
 " I am not to disturb them until ten o'clock," 
 he said. " You have now seen in operation one 
 of the grandest results of our occult philosophy, 
 the dissociation of spirit from body. Not only 
 are the spirits of these holy men standing at the 
 present moment by the banks of the Ganges, but 
 those spirits are clothed in a material covering 
 so identical with their real bodies that none of 
 the faithful will ever doubt that Lai Hoomi and 
 Mowdar Khan are actually among them. This 
 is accomplished by our power of resolving an 
 object into its chemical atoms, of conveying 
 these atoms with a speed which exceeds that of 
 lightning to any given spot, and of there re-pre- 
 cipitating them and compelling them to retake 
 their original form. Of old it was necessary to 
 convey the whole body in this way, but we have 
 since found that it was as easy and more con- 
 venient to transmit material enough merely to 
 build up an outside shell or semblance of a body. 
 This we have termed the astral body." 
 
 " But if you can transmit your spirits so
 
 readily," I observed, " why should they be ac- 
 companied by any body at all ?" 
 
 " In communicating with brother initiates we 
 are able to employ our spirits only ; but when 
 we wish to come in contact with ordinary man- 
 kind it is essential that we should appear in some 
 form which they can see and comprehend." 
 
 "You have interested me deeply in all that 
 you have told me," I said, grasping the hand 
 which Ram Singh had held out to me as a sign 
 that our interview was at an end. " I shall often 
 think of our short acquaintance." 
 
 "You will derive much benefit from it," he 
 said, slowly, still holding my hand and looking 
 gravely and sadly into my eyes. " You must 
 remember that what will happen in the future 
 is not necessarily bad because it does not fall in 
 with your preconceived ideas of right. Be not 
 hasty in your judgments. There are certain 
 great rules which must be carried out, at what- 
 ever cost to individuals. Their operation may 
 appear to you to be harsh and cruel, but that is 
 as nothing compared to the dangerous precedent 
 which would be established by not enforcing 
 them. The ox and the sheep are safe from us, 
 but the man with the blood of the highest upon 
 his hands should not and shall not live."
 
 I/I 
 
 He threw up his arms at the last words with 9 
 fierce, threatening gesture, and turning away 
 from me strode back to the ruined hut. I stood 
 gazing after him until he disappeared through 
 the doorway, and then started off for home, 
 revolving in my mind all that I had heard, and 
 more particularly this last outburst of the occult 
 philosopher. Far on the right I could see the 
 tall, white tower of Cloomber standing out clear- 
 cut and sharp against a dark cloud-bank which 
 rose behind it. I thought how any traveller who 
 chanced to pass that way would envy in his 
 heart the tenant of that magnificent building, and 
 how little they would guess the strange terrors, 
 the nameless dangers, which were gathering 
 about his head. The black cloud-wrack was but 
 the image, I reflected, of the darker, more 
 sombre, storm which was about to burst. 
 
 " Whatever it all means, and 'however it hap- 
 pens," I ejaculated, " God grant that the innocent 
 be not confounded with the guilty." 
 
 My father, when I reached home, was still in a 
 ferment over his learned disputation with the 
 stranger. " I trust, Jack," he said, " that I did 
 not handle him too roughly. I should remember 
 that I am in loco magistri, and be less prone to 
 argue with my guests. Yet, when he took up
 
 172 
 
 this most untenable position, I could not refrain 
 from attacking him and hurling him out of it, 
 which indeed I did, though you, who are ignor- 
 ant of the niceties of the question, may have 
 failed to perceive it. You observed, however, 
 that my reference to King Asoka's edicts was so 
 conclusive that he rose and took his leave. " 
 
 " You held your own bravely," I answered ; 
 " but what is your impression of the man now 
 that you have seen him ?" 
 
 " Why," said my father, " he is one of those 
 holy men who, under the various names of Sann- 
 asis, Yogis, Sevras, Qualanders, Hakims, and 
 Cufis, have devoted their lives to the study of 
 the mysteries of the Buddhist faith. He is, I 
 take it, a theosophist, or worshipper of the God 
 of knowledge, the highest grade of which is 
 the adept. This man and his companions have 
 not attained this high position or they could not 
 have crossed the sea without contamination. It 
 is probable that they are all advanced chelas who 
 hope in time to attain to the supreme honor of 
 adeptship." 
 
 " But, father," interrupted my sister, " this 
 does not explain why men of such sanctity and 
 attainments should choose to take up their quar- 
 ters on the shores of a desolate Scotch bay."
 
 173 , 
 
 " Ah, there you get beyond me," my father 
 answered. " I may suggest, however, that it is 
 nobody's business but their own, as long as they 
 keep the peace and are amenable to the law of 
 the land." 
 
 " Have you ever heard," I asked, " that these 
 higher priests of whom you speak have powers 
 which are unknown to us?" 
 
 " Why, Eastern literature is full of it. The 
 Bible is an Eastern book, and is it not full of the 
 record of such powers from cover to cover? It 
 is unquestionable that they have in the past 
 known many of Nature's secrets which are lost 
 to us. I cannot say, however, that the modern 
 theosophists really possess the powers that they 
 claim." 
 
 " Are they a vindictive class of people ? I 
 asked. " Is there any offense among them 
 which can only be expiated by death ?" 
 
 " Not that I know of," my father answered, 
 raising his white eyebrows in surprise. " You 
 appear to be in an inquisitive humor this after- 
 noon what is the object of all these questions? 
 Have our Eastern neighbors aroused your curi- 
 osity or suspicion in any way ?" 
 
 I parried the question as best I might, for I 
 was unwilling to let the old man know what was
 
 174 
 
 In my mind. No good purpose could come from 
 his enlightenment; his age and his health de- 
 manded rest rather than anxiety; and indeed with 
 the best will in the world I should have found 
 it difficult to explain to another what was so very 
 obscure to myself. For every reason I felt that 
 it was best that he should be kept in the dark. 
 
 Never in all my experience have I known a 
 day pass so slowly as did that eventful $th of Oc- 
 tober. In every possible manner I endeavored to 
 while away the tedious hours, and yet it seemed 
 as if darkness would never arrive. I tried to 
 read, I tried to write, I paced about the lawn, I 
 walked to the end of the lane, I put new flies 
 upon my fishing-hooks, I began to index my 
 father's library in a dozen ways I endeavored 
 to relieve the suspense which was becoming in- 
 tolerable. My sister, I could see, was suffering 
 from the same feverish restlessness. Again and 
 again our good father remonstrated with us in 
 his mild way for our erratic behavior and the 
 continual interruption of his work which arose 
 from it. At last, however, the tea was brought, 
 and the tea was taken, the curtains were drawn, 
 the lamps lit, and after another interminable 
 interval the prayers were read and the servants 
 dismissed to their rooms. My father com-
 
 175 
 
 pounded and swallowed his nightly jorum of 
 toddy, and then shuffled off to his room, leaving 
 the two of us in the parlor with our nerves in a 
 tingle and our minds full of the most vague and 
 yet terrible apprehensions.
 
 176 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 OF THE VISITOR WHO RAN DOWN THE ROAD IN 
 THE NIGHT-TIME. 
 
 It was a quarter past ten o'clock by the parlor 
 time-piece when my father went off to his room, 
 and left Esther and myself together. We heard 
 his slow steps dying away up the creaking stair- 
 case, until the distant slamming of a door an- 
 nounced that he had reached his sanctum. The 
 simple oil lamp upon the table threw a weird, 
 uncertain light over the old room, flickering upon 
 the carved oak panelling, and casting strange, 
 fantastic shadows from the high-elbowed, 
 straight-backed furniture. My sister's white, 
 anxious face stood out in the obscurity with a 
 startling exactness of profile, like one of Rem- 
 brandt's portraits. We sat opposite to each 
 other on either side of the table, with no sound 
 breaking the silence save the measured ticking 
 of the clock and the intermittent chirping of a 
 cricket beneath the grate. There was something 
 awe-inspiring in the absolute stillness. 'The 
 whistling of a belated peasant upon the high
 
 177 
 
 road was a relief to us, and we strained our ears 
 to catch the last of his notes as he plodded 
 steadily homewards. 
 
 At first we had made some pretense she of 
 knitting and I of reading ; but we soon abandoned 
 the useless deception, and sat uneasily waiting 
 starting and glancing at each other with ques- 
 tioning eyes whenever the fagot crackled in the 
 fire or a rat scampered behind the wainscot. 
 There was a heavy, electrical feeling in the air, 
 which weighed us down with a foreboding of 
 disaster. I rose and flung the hall door open to 
 admit the fresh breeze of the night. Ragged 
 clouds swept across the sky, and the moon 
 peeped out at times between their hurrying 
 fringes, bathing the whole country-side in its 
 cold, white radiance. From where I stood in 
 the doorway I could see the edge of the Cloom- 
 ber wood, though the house itself was only vis- 
 ible from the rising ground some little distance 
 off. At my sister's suggestion we walked to- 
 gether, she with her shawl over her head, as far 
 as the summit of this elevation, and looked out 
 in the direction of the Hall. There was no il- 
 lumination of the windows to-night. From roof 
 to basement not a light twinkled in any part of 
 the great building. Its huge o*ss loomed up
 
 dark and sullen amid the trees which surrounded 
 it, looking more like some giant sarcophagus 
 than a human habitation. To our overwrought 
 nerves there was something of terror in its mere 
 bulk and its silence. We stood for some little 
 time peering at it through the darkness, and 
 then we made our way back to the parlor again, 
 where we sat waiting waiting, we knew not for 
 what, and yet with the absolute conviction that 
 some terrible experience was in store for us. 
 
 It was twelve o'clock or close on to it when 
 my sister suddenly sprang to her feet and held 
 up her finger to bespeak attention. " Do you 
 hear nothing ?" she asked. 
 
 I strained my ears, but without success. 
 
 " Come to the door," she cried, with a tremb- 
 ling voice. " Now can you hear anything ?" 
 
 In the deep silence of the night I distinctly 
 heard a dull, murmuring, clattering sound, con- 
 tinuous apparently, but very faint and low. 
 " What is it?" I asked in a subdued voice. 
 
 " It's the sound of a man running towards us/' 
 she answered ; and then, suddenly dropping the 
 last semblance of self-command, she fell upon 
 her knees beside the table and began praying 
 aloud with that frenzied earnestness which in- 
 tense, overpowering fear can produce, breaking
 
 179 
 
 off now and again into half-hysterical whimper- 
 ings. 
 
 I could distinguish the sound clearly enough 
 now to know that her quick, feminine perception 
 had not deceived her, and that it was indeed 
 caused by a running man. On he came, and on 
 down the high road, his footfalls ringing out 
 clearer and sharper every moment. An urgent 
 messenger he must be, for he neither paused nor 
 slackened his pace. The quick, crisp rattle was 
 changed suddenly to a dull, muffled murmur. 
 He had reached the point where sand had been 
 recently laid down for a hundred yards or so. 
 In a few moments, however, he was back on 
 hard ground again and his flying feet were 
 nearer and ever nearer. He must, I reflected, 
 be abreast of the head of the lane now. Would 
 he hold on? or would he turn down to Brank- 
 some ? The thought had hardly crossed my 
 mind when I heard by the difference of the 
 sound that the runner had turned the corner, 
 and that his goal was beyond all question the 
 laird's house. Rushing down to the gate of the 
 lawn, I reached it just as our visitor dashed it 
 open and fell into my arms. I could see in the 
 moonlight that it was none other than Mordaunt 
 Hcatherstone.
 
 i8o 
 
 " My God ! " I cried, " what has happened ? 
 What is amiss, Mordaunt?" 
 
 " My father !" he gasped" my father !" His 
 hat was gone, his eyes dilated with terror, and 
 his face as bloodless as that of a corpse. I could 
 feel that the hands which clasped my arms were 
 quivering and shaking with emotion. 
 
 " You are exhausted," I said, leading him into 
 the parlor. " Give yourself a moment's rest 
 before you speak to us. Be calm, man, you are 
 with your best friends." I laid him on the old 
 horsehair sofa, while Esther, whose fears had all 
 flown to the winds now that something practical 
 was to be done, dashed some brandy into a 
 tumbler and brought it to him. The stimulant 
 had a marvellous effect upon him, for the color 
 began to come back into his pale cheeks and the 
 light of recognition in his eyes. He sat up and 
 took Esther's hand in both of his, like a man who 
 is waking out of some bad dream and wishes to 
 assure himself that he is really in safety. 
 
 " Your father?" I asked. - What of him ?" 
 
 " He is gone." 
 
 " Gone 1" 
 
 " Yes, he is gone ; and so is Corporal Rufus 
 Smith. We shall never *st eyes upon them 
 again."
 
 " But where have they gone ?" 1 cried. 
 "This is unworthy of you, Mordaunt. What 
 right have we to sit here, allowing our private 
 feelings to overcome us, while there is a possi- 
 bility of succoring your father? Up, man ! Let 
 us follow him. Tell me only what direction he 
 took." 
 
 " It's no use," young Heatherstone answered, 
 burying his face in his hands. " Don't reproach 
 me, West, for you don't know all the circum- 
 stances. What can we do to reverse the 
 tremendous and unknown laws which are acting 
 against us? The blow has long been hanging 
 over us, and now it has fallen. God help us !" 
 
 " In heaven's name tell me what has hap- 
 pened ?" said I, excitedly. " We must not yield 
 to despair." 
 
 "We can do nothing until daybreak," he an- 
 swered. " We shall then endeavor to obtain 
 some trace of them. It is hopeless at present." 
 
 " And how about Gabriel and Mrs. Heather- 
 stone ?" I asked. " Can we not bring them 
 down from the Hall at once ? Your poor sister 
 must be distracted with terror." 
 
 " She knows nothing of it," Mordaunt an- 
 swered. " She sleeps at the other side of the 
 bouse, and has not heard or seen anything. As
 
 182 
 
 to my poor mother, she has expected some such 
 event for so long a time that it has not come 
 upon her as a surprise. She is, of course, over- 
 whelmed with grief, but would, I think, prefer 
 to be left to herself for the present. Her firm- 
 ness and composure should be a lesson to me ; 
 but I am constitutionally excitable, and this 
 catastrophe coming after our long period of 
 suspense deprived me of my very reason for a 
 time." 
 
 " If we can do nothing until morning," I said, 
 " you have time to tell us all that has occurred." 
 
 "I shall do so," he answered, rising and hold- 
 ing his shaking hands to the fire. " You know 
 already that we have had reason for some time 
 for many years, in fact to fear that a terrible 
 retribution was hanging over my father's head 
 for a certain action of his early life. In this 
 action he was associated with the man known as 
 Corporal Rufus Smith ; so that the fact of the 
 latter finding his way to my father was a warn- 
 ing to us that the time had come, and that this 
 5th of October the anniversary of the mis- 
 deed would be the day of its atonement. I 
 told you of our fears in my letter ; and if I am 
 not mistaken, my father also had some conver- 
 sation with you, West, upon the subject. When
 
 183 
 
 I saw yesterday morning that he had hunted out 
 the old uniform which he has always retained 
 since he wore it in the Afghan war, I was sure 
 that the end was at hand, and that our forebod- 
 ings would be realized. 
 
 " He appeared to be more composed in the 
 afternoon than I have seen him for years, and 
 spoke freely of his life in India and of the in- 
 cidents of his youth. About nine o'clock he 
 requested us to go to our own rooms, and locked 
 us in there a precaution which he frequently 
 took when the dark fit was upon him. It was 
 always his endeavor, poor soul, to keep us clear 
 of the curse which had fallen upon his own un- 
 fortunate head. Before parting from us he ten- 
 derly embraced my mother and Gabriel, and he 
 afterwards followed me to my room, where he 
 clasped my hand affectionately and gave into 
 my charge a small packet addressed to your- 
 self." 
 
 " To me ?" I interrupted. 
 
 " To you. I shall fulfill my commission when- 
 ever I have told you my story. I conjured him 
 to allow me to sit up with him and to share any 
 danger which might arise , hut he implored me 
 with irresistible earnestness not to add to his 
 troubles by thwarting his arrangements. Seeing
 
 1 84 
 
 that I was really distressing him by my pertin- 
 acity, I at last allowed him to close the door and 
 to turn the key upon the outside. I shall always 
 reproach myself for my want of firmness. But 
 what can you do when your own father refuses 
 your assistance or co-operation? You cannot 
 force yourself upon him." 
 
 44 1 am sure that you did all you could do/' 
 my sister said. 
 
 " I meant to, dear Esther, but God help me, it 
 was hard to tell what was right. He left me, 
 and I heard his footsteps die away down the 
 long corridor. It was then about ten o'clock, 
 or a little after. For a time I paced up and 
 down the room, and then carrying the lamp to 
 the head of my bed, I lay upon it without un- 
 dressing, reading 'St. Thomas a Kempis,' and 
 praying from my heart that the night might 
 pass safely over us. I had at last fallen into a 
 troubled sleep when I was suddenly aroused by 
 a loud, sonorous sound ringing in my ears. I 
 I sat up bewildered, but all was silent again. 
 The lamp was burning low, and my watch 
 showed me that it was going on to midnight. 1 
 blundered to my feet, and was striking a match 
 with the intention of lighting the candles, when 
 the sharp, vehement cry broke out again so loud
 
 I8S 
 
 and so clear that It might have been in the very 
 room with me. My chamber is in the front of 
 the house, while those of my mother and sister 
 are at the back, so that I am the only one who 
 commands a view of the avenue. Rushing to 
 the window I drew the blind aside and looked 
 out. You know that the gravel drive opens up 
 so as to form a broad stretch immediately in front 
 of the house. Just in the centre of this clear 
 space there stood three men looking up at the 
 house. The moon shone full upon them, glis- 
 tening on their upturned eyeballs, and by its 
 light I could see that they were swarthy-faced 
 and black-haired, of a type that I was familiar 
 with among the Sikhs and Afreedees. Two of 
 them were thin, with eager, aesthetic counte- 
 nances, while the third was kinglike and majestic, 
 with a noble figure and flowing beard." 
 
 " Ram Singh 1" I ejaculated. 
 
 " What, you know them," exclaimed Mordaunt, 
 in great surprise. " You have met them ?" 
 
 41 1 know of them. They are Buddhist priests," 
 I answered ; " but go on." 
 
 " They stood in a line," he continued, " sweep. 
 ing their arms upwards and downwards, while 
 their lips moved as if repeating some prayer or 
 incantation. Suddenly they ceased to gesticu*
 
 186 
 
 late, and broke out for the third time into thd 
 wild, weird, piercing cry which had roused me 
 from my slumber. Never shall I forget that 
 shrili, dreadful summons, swelling and reverber- 
 ating through the silent night with an intensity 
 of sound which is still ringing in my ears. As 
 it died slowly away there was a rasping and 
 creaking as of keys and bolts, followed by the 
 clang of an opening door and the clatter of 
 hurrying feet. From my window I saw my 
 father and Corporal Rufus Smith rush frantically 
 out of the house, hatless and unkempt, like men 
 who are obeying a sudden and overpowering 
 impulse. The three strangers laid no hands 
 upon them, but the whole five swept swiftly 
 away down the avenue and vanished among the 
 trees. I am positive that no force was used, or 
 constraint of any visible kind, and yet I am as 
 sure that my poor father and his companion were 
 helpless prisoners as if I had seen them dragged 
 away in manacles. All this took little time in the 
 acting. From the first summons which disturbed 
 my sleep to the last shadowy glimpse which I 
 had of them between the tree trunks could 
 hardly have occupied more than five minutes of 
 actual time. So sudden was it, and so strange, 
 that when the drama was over and they were
 
 gone, I could have believed that it was all some 
 terrible nightmare, some delusion, had I not felt 
 that the impression was too real, too vivid to be 
 imputed to fancy. I threw my whole weight 
 against my bedroom door in the hope of forcing 
 the lock. It stood firm for a while, but I flung 
 myself upon it again and again, until something 
 snapped and I found myself in the passage. My 
 first thought was for my mother. I rushed to 
 her room and turned the key in her door. The 
 moment that I did so she stepped out into the 
 corridor in her dressing-gown, and held UD a 
 Warning finger. 
 
 " * No noise,' she said. * Gabriel is asleep. 
 They have been called away ?' 
 
 " ' They have/ I answered. 
 
 " ' God's will be done !' she cried. ' Your poor 
 father will be happier in the next world than he 
 has ever been in this. Thank heaven that Gabriel 
 is asleep. I gave her chloral in her cocoa/ 
 
 "'What am I to do?' I said, distractedly. 
 ' Where have they gone ? How can I help him ? 
 We cannot let him go from us like this, or leave 
 these men to do what they will with him. Shall 
 I ride into Wigtown and rouse the police ?' 
 
 " ' Anything rather than that,' my mother said, 
 earnestly. ' lie has begged me again and agaii>
 
 i88 
 
 to avoid it. My son, we shall never set eyes on 
 your father again. You may marvel at my dry 
 eyes ; but if you knew as I know the peace which 
 death would bring him, you could not find it in 
 your heart to mourn for him. All pursuit is, I 
 feel, vain ; and yet some pursuit there must be. 
 Let it be as private as possible. We cannot 
 serve him better than by consulting his wishes.' 
 
 " ' But every minute is precious,' I cried. 
 1 Even now he may be calling upon us to rescue 
 him from the clutches of these dark-skinned 
 fiends.* 
 
 The thought so maddened me that I rushed 
 out of the house and down to the high road, but 
 once there I had no indication in which direc- 
 tion to turn. The whole wide moor lay before 
 me, without a sign of movement upon its broad 
 expanse. I listened, but not a sound broke the 
 perfect stillness of the night. It was then, my 
 dear friends, as I stood, not knowing in which 
 direction to turn, that the horror and responsu 
 bility broke full upon me. I felt that I was com- 
 bating against forces of which I knew nothing. 
 All was strange and dark and terrible. The 
 thought of you, and of the help which I might 
 look for from your advice and assistance, was a 
 beacon of hope to me. At Branksome, at least,
 
 I8 9 
 
 I should receive sympathy, and, above all, direc- 
 tions as to what I should do ; for my mind is in 
 Such a whirl that I cannot trust my own judg- 
 ment. My mother was content to be alone, my 
 sister asleep, and no prospect of being able to 
 do anything until daybreak. Under those cir- 
 cumstances what more natural than that I should 
 fly to you as fast as my feet would carry me ? 
 You have a clear head, Jack ; speak out, man, 
 and tell me what I should do. Esther, what 
 should I do?" He turned from one to the other 
 of us with outstretched hands and eager, ques- 
 tioning eyes. 
 
 " You can do nothing while the darkness 
 lasts," I answered. " We must report the matter 
 to the Wigtown police ; but we need not send 
 our message to them until we are actually start- 
 ing upon the search, so as to comply with the 
 law and yet have a private investigation, as your 
 mother wishes. John Fullarton, over the hill, 
 has a lurcher dog which is as good as a blood- 
 hound. If we set him on the general's trail he 
 will run him down if he has to follow him to 
 John o' Groats.'* 
 
 " It is terrible to wait calmly here while he 
 may need our assistance." 
 
 * I fear our assistance could under any circum-
 
 190 
 
 stances do him little good. There are forces at 
 work here which are beyond human interven- 
 tion. Besides, there is no alternative. We 
 have, apparently, no possible clue as to the 
 direction which they have taken, and for us to 
 wander aimlessly over the moor in the darkness 
 would be to waste the strength which may be 
 more profitably used in the morning. It will be 
 daylight by five o'clock. In an u hour or so we 
 can walk over the hill together and get Fullar- 
 ton's dog." 
 
 " Another hour !" Mordaunt groaned, " every 
 minute seems an age." 
 
 " Lie down on the sofa again and rest your- 
 self," said I. " You cannot serve your father 
 better than by laying .up all the strength you 
 can, for we may have a weary trudge before us. 
 But you mentioned a packet which the general 
 had intended for me." 
 
 " It is here," he answered, drawing a small, 
 flat parcel from his pocket and handing it over 
 to me ; " you will find, no doubt, that it will 
 explain all which has been so mysterious." 
 
 The packet was sealed at either end with 
 black wax, bearing the impress of the flying 
 griffin, which I knew to be the general's crest. 
 It was further secured by a band of broad tape
 
 which I cut with my pocket knife. Across the 
 outside was written, in bold handwriting: "J 
 Fothergill West, Esq.,'* and underneath, " To be 
 handed to that gentleman in the event of the 
 disappearance or decease of Major-General J. 
 B. Heatherstone, V. C, C. B., late of the Indian 
 Army." So at last I was to know the dark 
 secret which had cast a shadow over our lives. 
 Here in my hands I held the solution of it. 
 With eager fingers I broke the seals and undid 
 the wrapper. A note and a small bundle of dis- 
 colored paper lay within. I drew the lamp over 
 to me and opened the former. It was dated 
 from the preceding afternoon, and ran in this 
 way: 
 
 MY DEAR WEST, I should have satisfied your 
 very natural curiosity on the subject which we 
 have had occasion to talk of more than once, 
 but I refrained for your own sake. I knew by sad 
 experience how unsettling and unnerving it is 
 to be forever waiting for a catastrophe which 
 you are convinced must befall, and which you 
 can neither avert nor accelerate. Though it 
 affects me specially, as being the person most 
 concerned, I am still conscious that the natural 
 sympathy which I hav<? observed in you, and
 
 I 9 2 
 
 your regard for Gabriel's father, would both 
 combine to render you unhappy if you knew the 
 hopelessness and yet the vagueness of the fate 
 which threatens me. I feared to disturb your 
 mind, and I was, therefore, silent, though at some 
 cost to myself, for my isolation has been not 
 the least of the troubles which have weighed 
 me down. Many signs, however, and chief 
 among them the presence of the Buddhists upon 
 the coast as 'described by you this morning, 
 have convinced me that the weary waiting is at 
 last over and that the hour of retribution is at 
 hand. Why I should have been allowed to live 
 nearly forty years after my offense, is more than 
 I can understand, but it is possible that those 
 who had command over my fate know that 
 such a life is the greatest of all penalties to 
 me. Never for an hour, night or day, have they 
 suffered me to iorget that they have marked me 
 down as their victim. Their accursed astral bell 
 has been ringing my knell for twoscore years, 
 reminding me ever that there is no spot upon 
 earth where I can hope to be in safety. Oh, the 
 peace, the blessed peace of dissolution ! Come 
 what may on the other side of the tomb, I shall 
 at least be quit of that thrice terrible sound. 
 There is no need for me to enter into tho
 
 193 
 
 wretched fcmstness again, or to detail at any 
 length the events of the fifth of October, 1841, 
 and the various circumstances which led up to 
 the death of Ghoolab Shah, the arch adept. I 
 have torn a sheaf of leaves from my old journal, 
 in which you will find a bald account of the mat- 
 ter, and an independent narrative was furnished 
 by Sir Edward Elliott, of the Artillery, to the 
 Star of India some years ago in which, how- 
 ever, the names were suppressed. I have reason 
 to believe that many people, even among those 
 who knew India well, thought that Sir Edward 
 was romancing, and that he had evolved his inci- 
 dents from his imagination. The few faded 
 leaves which I send you will show you that this is 
 not the case, and that our men of science must 
 recognize powers and laws which can and have 
 been used by man, but which are unknown to 
 European civilization. 
 
 I do not wish to whine or to whimper; but I 
 cannot help feeling that I have had hard measure 
 dealt me in this world. I would not, God knows* 
 take the life of any man, far less an aged one, in 
 cold blood. My temper and nature, however* 
 were always fiery and headstrong, and in action 
 when my blood is up I have no knowledge of 
 what I am about. Neither the corporal or I
 
 194 
 
 would have laid a finger upon Ghoolab Shah had 
 we not seen that the tribesmen were rallying be- 
 hind him. Well, well ; it is an old story now, 
 and there is no profit in discussing it. May no 
 other poor fellow ever have the same evil for. 
 tune! 
 
 I have written a short supplement to the state- 
 ments contained in my journal for your informa- 
 tion, and that of any one else who may chance to 
 be interested in the matter. And now, adieu ! 
 Be a good husband to Gabriel ; and if your sis- 
 ter be brave enough to marry into such a devil- 
 ridden family as ours, by all means let her do so. 
 I have left enough to keep my poor wife in com. 
 fort. When she rejoins me I should wish it to 
 be equally divided between the children. If you 
 hear that I am gone, do not pity, but congratu- 
 late 
 
 Your unfortunate friend, 
 
 JOHN BERTHIER HEATHERSTONE. 
 
 t threw aside the letter and picked up the roll 
 of bine foolscap which contained the solution of 
 the mystery. It was all ragged and frayed at 
 the inner edge, with traces of gum and thread 
 still adhering to it, to show that it had been torn 
 out of a strongly bound volume. The ink with
 
 195 
 
 which it had been written had faded somewhat; 
 but across the head of the first page was in- 
 scribed in bold, clear characters, evidently of 
 later date than the rest, " Journal of Lieutenant 
 J. B. Heatherstone, in the Thull valley during 
 the autumn of 1841," and then underneath, 
 "This extract contains some account of the 
 events of the first week of October of that year, 
 including the skirmish of the Terada ravine and 
 the death of the man Ghoolab Shah." I have 
 the narrative lying before me now, and I copy 
 it verbatim. If it contains some matter which 
 has no direct bearing upon the question at issue, 
 I can only say that I thought it better to publish 
 what is irrelevant than by cutting and clipping 
 to lay the whole statement open to the charge 
 of having been tampered with.
 
 196 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE DAY-BOOK OF JOHN BERTHIER HEATHER 
 
 STONE. 
 
 THULL VALLEY, Oct. i, 1841. The Fifth Ben. 
 gal and the Thirty-third Queen's passed through 
 this morning on their way to the front. Had 
 tiffin with the Bengalese. Latest news from 
 home that two attempts had been made on the 
 Queen's life by semi-maniacs named Francis and 
 Bean. 
 
 It promises to be a hard winter. The snow- 
 line has descended a thousand feet upon the 
 peaks, but the passes will be open for weeks to 
 come, and even if they were blocked, we have 
 established so many dep6ts in the country that 
 Pollock and Nott will have no difficulty in hold- 
 ing their own. They shall not meet with the 
 fate of Elphinstone's army. One such tragedy 
 is enough for a century. 
 
 Elliott, of the Artillery, and I, are answerable 
 for the safety of the communications for a dis- 
 tance of twenty miles or more, from the mouth
 
 197 
 
 of the valley to this side of the wooden bridge 
 over the Lotar. Goodenough, of the rifles, Is 
 responsible on the other side ; and Lieutenant. 
 Colonel Sidney Herbert, of the Engineers, has a 
 general supervision over both sections. Our 
 force is not strong enough for the work which 
 has to be done. I have a company and a half of 
 our own regiment, and a squadron of Sowars, 
 who are of no use at all among the rocks. 
 Elliott has three guns, but several of his men are 
 down with cholera, and I doubt if he has enough 
 to serve more than two. [Note : capiscum for 
 cholera tried it.] On the other hand, each 
 convoy is usually provided with some guard of 
 its own, though it is often absurdly inefficient. 
 These valleys and ravines which branch out of 
 the main pass are alive with Afreedees and 
 Pathans, who are keen robbers as well as relig- 
 ious fanatics. I wonder they don't swoop down 
 on some of our caravans. They could plunder 
 them and get back to their mountain fastnesses 
 before we could interfere or overtake them. 
 Nothing but fear will restrain them. If I had 
 my way I would hang one at the mouth of every 
 ravine as a warning to the gang. They are 
 personifications of the devil to look at, hawk- 
 nosed, full-lipped, with a mane of tangled hair,
 
 198 
 
 and most Satanic sneer. No news to-day from 
 the front. 
 
 October 2. I must really ask Herbert for 
 another company at the very least. I am con- 
 vinced that the communications would be cut 
 off if any serious attack were made upon us. 
 Now, this morning two urgent messages were 
 sent me from two different points more than six- 
 teen miles apart, to say that there were signs of 
 a descent of the tribes. Elliott, with one gun 
 and the Sowars, went to the further ravine, 
 while I, with the infantry, hurried to the other ; 
 but we found it was a false alarm. I saw no 
 signs of the hillmen, and though we were 
 greeted by a sputter of jezail bullets we were 
 unable to capture any of the rascals. Woe betide 
 them if they fall into my hands! I would give 
 them as short a shrift as ever a Highland cateran 
 got from a Glasgow judge. These continued 
 alarms may mean nothing or they may be an 
 indication that the hillmen are assembling and 
 have some plan in view, 
 
 We have had no news from the front for some 
 time, but to-day a convoy of wounded came 
 through with the intelligence that Nott had 
 taken Ghuznee. I hope he warmed up any of 
 the black rascals that fell into his hands. No
 
 199 
 
 word of Pollock. An elephant battery came up 
 from the Punjaub, looking in a very good 
 condition. There were several convalescents 
 with it going up to rejoin their regiments. Knew 
 none of them except Mostyn of the Hussars and 
 young Blakesley, who was my fag at Charter- 
 house, and whom I have never seen since. 
 Punch and cigars al fresco up to eleven o'clock. 
 Letters to-day from Wills and Co., about their 
 little bill forwarded on from Delhi. Thought a 
 campaign freed a man from these annoyances. 
 Wills says in his note that since his written 
 applications have been in vain, he must call upon 
 me in person. If he calls upon me now he will 
 assuredly be the boldest and most persevering of 
 tailors. A line from Calcutta Daisy and another 
 from Hobhouse to say that Matilda comes in for 
 all the money under the will. I am glad of it. 
 
 October 3. Glorious news from the front to- 
 day. Barclay, of the Madras Cavalry, galloped 
 through with dispatches. Pollock entered 
 Cabul triumphantly on the i6th of last month, 
 and, better still, Lady Sale has been rescued by 
 Shakespeare, and brought safe into the British 
 camp, together with the other hostages. " Te 
 Deum Laudamus!" This should end the whole 
 wretched business this and the sack of the city.
 
 200 
 
 I hope Pollock won't be squeamish, or truckle to 
 the hysterical party at home. The town should 
 be laid in ashes and the fields sown with salt. 
 Above all, the Residency and the Palace must 
 come down. So shall Burnes, McNaghten, and 
 many another gallant fellow know that his 
 countrymen could avenge if they could not save 
 him ! 
 
 It is hard when others are gaining glory and 
 experience to be stuck in this miserable valley. 
 I have been out of it completely, bar a few petty 
 skirmishes. However, we may see some service 
 yet. A jemidar of ours brought in a hillman 
 to-day, who says that the tribes are massing in 
 the Terada ravine, ten miles to the north of us, 
 and intend attacking the next convoy. We 
 can't rely on information of this sort, but there 
 may prove to be some truth in it. Proposed to 
 shoot our informant, so as to prevent his playing 
 the double traitor and reporting our proceedings. 
 Elliott demurred. If you are making war you 
 should throw no chance away. I hate half-and- 
 half measures. The Children of Israel seem to 
 have been the only people who ever carried war 
 to its logical conclusion except Cromwell in 
 Ireland made a compromise at last by which 
 the man is to be detained as a prisoner and
 
 2OI 
 
 executed if his information prove to be false, I 
 only hope we get a fair chance of showing what 
 we can do. No doubt these fellows at the front 
 will have C. B.'s and knighthoods showering 
 upon them thick and fast, while we poor devils,' 
 who have had most of the responsibility and 
 anxiety, will be passed over completely. Elliott 
 has a whitlow. The last convoy left us a large 
 packet of sauces, but as they forgot to leave 
 anything to eat with them, we have handed them 
 over to the Sowars, who drink them out of their 
 pannikins as if they were liqueurs. We hear 
 that another large convoy may be expected from 
 the plains in the course of a day or two. Took 
 nine to four on Cleopatra for the Calcutta 
 Cup. 
 
 October 4. The hillmen really mean business 
 this time, I think. We have had two of our 
 spies come in this morning with the same 
 account about the gathering in the Terada 
 quarter. That old rascal Zemaun is at the head 
 of it, and I have recommended the Government 
 to present him with a telescope in return for his 
 neutrality.' There will be no Zemaun to present 
 it to if I can but lay hands upon him. We 
 expect the convoy to-morrow morning, and need 
 anticipate no attack until it comes up, for these
 
 fellows fight for plunder, not for glory, though, 
 to do them justice, they have plenty of pluck 
 when they get started. I have devised an 
 excellent plan, and it has Elliott's hearty support. 
 By Jove ! if we can only manage it, it will be as 
 pretty a ruse as ever I heard of ! Our intention 
 is to give out that we are going down the valley 
 to meet the convoy and to block the mouth of a 
 pass from which we profess to expect an attack. 
 Very good. We shall make a night march 
 to-night and reach their camp. Once there I 
 shall conceal my two hundred men in the 
 wagons and travel up with the convoy again. 
 Our friends, the enemy, having heard that we 
 intended to go south, and seeing the caravan 
 going north without us, will naturally swoop 
 down upon it under the impression that we are 
 twenty miles away. We shall teach them such 
 a lesson that they would as soon think of stop- 
 ping a thunderbolt as of interfering again with 
 one of Her Britannic Majesty's provision trains. 
 I am all on thorns to be off. 
 
 Elliott has rigged up two of his guns so ingen- 
 iously that they look more like costermongers* 
 barrows than anything else. To see artillery 
 ready for action in the convoy might arouse 
 suspicion. The artillerymen will be in the
 
 203 
 
 wagons next the guns, all ready to unlimber and 
 open fire. Infantry in front and rear. Have 
 told our confidential and discreet Sepoy servants 
 the plan which we do not intend to adopt. N.B. 
 If you wish a thing to be noised over a whole 
 province always whisper it under a vow of 
 secrecy to your confidential native servant. 
 
 8 : 45 P. M. Just starting for the convoy. May 
 luck go with us ! 
 
 October 5. Seven o'clock in the evening. lo 
 triumph f ! Crown us with laurel Elliott and 
 myself ! Who can compare with us as vermin- 
 killers ? I have only just got back, tired and 
 weary, stained with blood and dust, but I have 
 sat down before either washing or changing to 
 have the satisfaction of seeing our deeds set 
 forth in black and white if only in my private 
 log for no eye but my own. I shall describe it 
 all fully as a preparation for our official account, 
 which must be drawn up when Elliott gets back. 
 Billy Dawson used to say that there were three 
 degrees of comparison a prevarication, a lie, 
 and an official account. We at least cannot 
 exaggerate our success, for it would be impos- 
 sible to add anything to it. 
 
 We set out, then, as per programme, and came 
 upon the camp near the head of the valley. They
 
 204 
 
 had two weak com panics of the 54th with them 
 who might no doubt have held their own with 
 warning, but an unexpected rush of wild 
 hillmen is a very difficult thing to stand against. 
 With our reinforcement, however, and on our 
 guard, we might defy the rascals. Chamberlain 
 was in command a fine young fellow. We soon 
 made him understand the situation, and were all 
 ready for a start by daybreak though his wagons 
 were so full that we were compelled to leave 
 several tons of fodder behind in order to make 
 room for my Sepoys and for the artillery. About 
 five o'clock we inspanned, to use an Africanism, 
 and by six we were well on our way, with our 
 escort as straggling and unconcerned as possible 
 as helpless-looking a caravan as ever invited 
 attack. 
 
 I could soon see that it was to be no false alarm 
 this time, and that the tribes really meant busi- 
 ness. From my post of observation under the 
 canvas screen of one of the wagons I could make 
 out turbaned heads popping up to have a look 
 at us from among the rocks, and an occasional 
 scout hurrying northward with the news of our 
 approach. It was not, however, until we came 
 abreast of the Terada Pass, a gloomy defile 
 bounded by gigantic clififs, that the Afreedees
 
 205 
 
 tjegan to show in force, though they had am- 
 bushed themselves so cleverly that had we not 
 been keenly on the look-out for them, we might 
 have walked right into the trap. As it was, the 
 convoy halted, upon which the hillmen, seeing 
 that they were observed, opened a heavy but ill- 
 directed fire upon us. I had asked Chamberlain 
 to throw out his men in skirmishing order, and 
 to give them directions to retreat slowly upon 
 the wagons so as to draw the Afreedees on. The 
 ruse succeeded to perfection. As the redcoats 
 steadily retired, keeping behind cover as much 
 as possible, the enemy followed them up with 
 yells of exultation, springing from rock to rock, 
 waving their jezails in the air, and howling like 
 a pack of demons. With their black, contorted, 
 mocking faces, their fierce gestures, and their 
 fluttering garments, they would have made a 
 study for any painter who wished to portray 
 Milton's conception of the army of the damned. 
 From every side they pressed m jntil seeing, as 
 ihey thought, nothing between them and victory, 
 they left the shelter of the rocks and came rush- 
 ing down, a furious, howling throng, with the 
 green banner of the Prophet in their van. Now 
 was our chance, and gloriously we utilized it. 
 From every cranny and s'it of the wagons came
 
 206 
 
 a blaze of fire, every shot of which told among 
 the close-packed mob. Two or three score 
 rolled over like rabbits and the rest reeled for a 
 moment, and then, with their chiefs at their 
 heads, came on again in a magnificent rush. It 
 was useless, however, for undisciplined men to 
 attempt to face such a well-directed fire. The 
 leaders were bowled over, and the others, after 
 hestitating for a few moments, turned and made 
 for the rocks. It was our turn now to assume 
 the offensive. The guns were unlimbered and 
 grape poured into them, while our little infantry 
 force advanced at the double, shooting and stab 
 bing all whom they overtook. Never have I 
 known the tide of battle turn so rapidly and so 
 decisively. The sullen retreat became a flight, 
 and the flight a panic-stricken rout, until there 
 was nothing left of the tribesmen except a scat, 
 tered, demoralized rabble flying wildly to their 
 native fastnesses for shelter and protection. } 
 
 I was by no means inclined to let them off 
 cheaply now that I had them in my power. On 
 the contrary, I determined to teach them such a 
 lesson that the sight of a single scarlet uniform 
 would in future be a passport in itself. We 
 followed hard upon the track of the fugitives 
 and entered the Terada defile at their very
 
 207 
 
 heels. Having- detached Chamberlain and 
 Elliott with a company on either side to protect 
 my wings, I pushed on with my Sepoys and a 
 handful of artillerymen, giving them no time to 
 rally or to recover themselves. We were so 
 handicapped, however, by our stiff European 
 uniforms and by our want of practise in climbing, 
 that we should have been unable to overtake any 
 of the mountaineers had it not been for a for- 
 tunate accident. There is a smaller ravine 
 which opens into the main pass, and in their 
 hurry and confusion some of the fugitives rushed 
 down this. I saw sixty or seventy of them turn 
 down, but I should have passed them by and 
 continued in pursuit of the main body had not 
 one of my scouts come rushing 1 up to inform me 
 that the smaller ravine was a cul-de-sac, and that 
 the Afreedees who had gone up it had no possi- 
 ble means of getting out again except by cutting 
 their way through our ranks. Here was an oppor- 
 tunity of striking terror into the tribes. Leaving 
 Chamberlain and Elliott to continue the pursuit 
 of the main body, I wheeled my Sepoys into the 
 narrow pass and proceeded slowly down it in ex- 
 tended order, covering the whole ground from 
 cliff to cliff. Not a jackal could have passed un- 
 seen. The rebels were caught like rats in a trap.
 
 208 
 
 The defile in which we found ourselves was 
 the most gloomy and majestic that I have ever 
 seen. On either side naked precipices rose 
 sheer up fora thousand feet or more, converging 
 upon each other so as to leave a very narrow- 
 slit of daylight above us, which was further 
 reduced by the feathery fringe of palm trees and 
 aloes which hung over each lip of the chasm. 
 The cliffs were not more than a couple of hun- 
 dred yards apart at the entrance, but as we 
 advanced they grew nearer and nearer, until 
 a half company in close order could hardly 
 march abreast. A sort of twilight reigned in 
 this strange valley, and the dim, uncertain light 
 made the great basalt rocks loom up vague and 
 fantastic. There was no path, and the ground 
 was most uneven, but I pushed on briskly, cau- 
 tioning my fellows to have their fingers on their 
 triggers, for I could see that we were nearing 
 the point where the two cliffs would form an 
 acute angle with each other. 
 
 At last we came in sight of the place. A great 
 pile of boulders were heaped up at the very end 
 of the pass, and among these our fugitives were 
 skulking, entirely demoralized apparently, and 
 incapable of resistance. They were useless aa 
 prisoners, and it was out of the question to let
 
 209 
 
 them go, so there was no choice but to polish 
 them off. Waving my sword, I was leading my 
 men on, when we had a most dramatic interrup- 
 tion of a sort which I have seen once or twice on 
 the boards of Drury Lane, but never in real life. 
 In the side of the cliff, close to the pile of 
 stones where the hillmen were making their last 
 stand, there was a cave which looked more like 
 the lair of some wild beast than a human habita- 
 tion. Out of this dark archway there suddenly 
 emerged an old man such a very, very old man 
 that all the other veterans whom I have seen 
 were as chickens compared to him. His hair 
 and his beard were both as white as snow, and 
 each reached more than half way to his waist. 
 His face was wrinkled and brown and bony, a 
 cross between a monkey and a mummy, and so 
 thin and emaciated were his shrivelled limbs 
 that you would hardly have given him credit 
 for having any vitality left, were it not for his 
 eyes, which glittered and sparkled with excite- 
 ment, like two diamonds in a setting of mahogany. 
 This apparition came rushing out of the cave, 
 and, throwing himself between the fugitives and 
 our fellows, motioned us back with as imperious 
 a sweep of the hand as ever an eyeror used to 
 his slav<*.
 
 2IO 
 
 " Men of blood," he cried, in a voice of thun- 
 der, speaking excellent English, too " this is a 
 place for prayer and meditation, not for murder. 
 Desist, lest the wrath of the gods fall upon 
 you r 
 
 " Stand aside, old man," I shouted. " You 
 will meet with a hurt if you don't get out of the 
 way." 
 
 I could see that the hillmen were taking heart, 
 and that some of my Sepoys were flinching, as if 
 they did not relish this new enemy. Clearly, I 
 must act promptly, if I wished to complete our 
 success. I dashed forward at the head of the 
 white artillerymen who had stuck to me. The 
 old fellow rushed at us with his arms out as if to 
 stop us; but it was no time to stick at trifles, so 
 I passed my sword through his body at the same 
 moment that one of the gunners brought his 
 carbine down upon his head. He dropped in- 
 stantly, and the hillmen, at the sight of his fall, 
 , set up the most unearthly howl of horror and 
 consternation. The Sepoys, who had been in- 
 clined to hang back, came on again the moment 
 he was disposed of, and it did not take us long to 
 consummate our victory. Hardly a man of the 
 enemy got out of the defile alive. What could 
 Hannibal or Caesar have done mor?* Our own
 
 loss in the whole affair has been insignificant 
 three killed and about fifteen wounded. Got 
 their banner, a green wisp of a thing with a 
 sentence of the Koran engraved upon it. 
 
 I looked, after the action, for the old chap, but 
 his body had disappeared, though how or whither 
 I have no conception. His blood be upon his 
 own head ! He would be alive now if he had 
 not interfered, as the constables say at home, 
 " with an officer in the execution of his duty." 
 The scouts tell me that his name was Ghoolab 
 Shah, and that he was one of the highest and 
 holiest of the Buddhists. He had great fame in 
 the district as a prophet and worker of miracles 
 hence the hubbub when he was cut down. 
 They tell me that he was living in this very cave 
 when Tamerlane passed this way in 1397, with a 
 lot more bosh of the sort. I went into the cave, 
 and how any man could live in it a week is a 
 mystery to me, for it was little more than four 
 feet high, and as damp and dismal a grotto as 
 ever was seen. A wooden settle and a rough 
 table was the sole furniture, with a lot of parch, 
 ment scrolls covered with hieroglyphics. Well, 
 he has gone where he will learn that the gospel 
 of peace and goodwill is superior to all his Pagan 
 lore. Peace go with him?
 
 212 
 
 Elliott and Chamberlain never caught the main 
 body I knew they wouldn't so the honors 
 of the day rest with me. I ought to get a step 
 for k, anyhow, and perhaps, who knows? some 
 mention in the Gazette. What a lucky chance ! 
 I think Zemaun deserves his telescope after all 
 for giving it to me. Shall have something to eat 
 now, for I am half starved. Glory is an excellent 
 thing, but you cannot live upon it. 
 
 October 6, II A. M. Let me try to set down as 
 calmly and as accurately as I can all that occurred 
 last night. I have never been a dreamer or a 
 visionary, so I can rely upon my own senses, 
 though I am bound to say that if any other fellow 
 had told me the same thing I should have doubted 
 him. I might even have suspected that I was 
 deceived at the time had I not heard the bell 
 since. However, I must narrate what happened. 
 
 Elliott was in my tent with me having a quiet 
 cheroot until about ten o'clock. I then walked 
 the rounds with my jemidar, and having seen 
 that all was right I turned in a little before eleven. 
 I was just dropping off to sleep, for I was dog- 
 tired after the day's work, when I was aroused 
 by some slight noise, and, looking round, I saw a 
 man dressed in Asiatic costume standing at the 
 entrance of my tent, He wr^ motionless when I
 
 aaw him, and he had his eyes fixed upon me with 
 a solemn and stern expression. My first thought 
 was that the fellow was some Ghazi or Afghan 
 fanatic who had stolen in with the intention of 
 stabbing me, and with this idea in my mind I bad 
 all the will to spring from my couch and defend 
 myself, but the power was unaccountably lack- 
 ing. An overpowering languor and want of 
 energy possessed me. Had I seen the dagger de- 
 scending upon my breast I could not have made 
 an effort to avert it. I suppose a bird when it is 
 under the influence of a snake feels very much 
 as I did in the presence of this gloomy-faced 
 stranger. My mind was clear enough, but my 
 body was as torpid as though I were still asleep. 
 I shut my eyes once or twice and tried to per- 
 suade myself that the whole thing was a delusion, 
 but every time that I opened them there was the 
 man Still regarding me with the same stony, 
 menacing stare. The silence became unendura- 
 ble. I felt that I must overcome my languor so 
 far as to address him. I am not a nervous man, 
 and I never knew before what Virgil meant when 
 he wrote " adhaesit faucibus ora" At last I 
 managed to stammer out a few words, asking the 
 intruder who he was and what he wanted. 
 " Lieutenant Heatherstone," he answered,
 
 314 
 
 speaking slowly and gravely, * you have conv 
 mitted this day the foulest sacrilege and the 
 greatest crime which it is possible for man to do. 
 You have slain one of the thrice blessed and 
 reverent ones, an arch adept of the first degree, 
 an elder brother who has trod the higher path 
 for more years than you have numbered months. 
 You have cut him off at a time when his labors 
 promised to reach a climax, and when he was 
 about to attain a height of occult knowledge 
 which would have brought man one step nearer 
 to the Creator. All this you have done without 
 excuse, without provocation, at a time when he 
 was pleading the cause of the helpless and dis- 
 tressed. Listen now to me, John Heatherstone. 
 " When first the occult sciences were pursued 
 many thousands of years ago, it was found by the 
 learned that the short tenure of human existence 
 was too limited to allow a man to attain the 
 loftiest heights of inner life. The inquirers of 
 those days directed their energies in the first 
 place, therefore, to the lengthening of their own 
 days in order that they might have more scope 
 for improvement. By their knowledge of the 
 secret laws of Nature they were enabled to 
 fortify their bodies against disease and old age. 
 It only remained to protect themselves against
 
 215 
 
 the assaults of wicked and violent men who ara 
 ever ready to destroy what is wiser and nobler 
 than themselves. There was no direct means by 
 which this protection could be effected, but it 
 was in some measure attained by arranging the 
 occult forces in such a way that a terrible and 
 unavoidable retribution should await the offen- 
 der. It was irrevocably ordained bylaws which 
 cannot be reversed that any one who should 
 shed the blood of a brother who had attained a 
 certian degree of sanctity should be a doomed 
 man. Those laws are extant to this day, John 
 Heatherstone, and you have placed yourself in 
 their power. King or emperor would be help, 
 less before the forces which you have called into 
 play. What hope, then, is there for you ? 
 
 " In former days these laws acted so instan- 
 taneously that the slayer perished with his 
 victim. It was judged afterwards that this 
 prompt retribution prevented the offender from 
 having time to realize the enormity of his 
 offense. It was therefore ordained that in all 
 such cases the retribution should be left in the 
 hands of the chelas, or immediate disciples of 
 the holy man, with power to extend or shorten 
 it at their will, exacting it either at the time or 
 at any future anniversary of the day when the
 
 216 
 
 crime was committed. Why punishment should 
 come on those days only it does not concern you 
 to know. Suffice it that you are the murderer 
 of Ghoolab Shah, the thrice blessed, and that I 
 am the senior of his three chelas commissioned 
 to avenge his death. 
 
 " It is no personal matter between us. Amid 
 our studies we have no leisure or inclination for 
 personal matters. It is an immutable law, and 
 it is as impossible for us to relax it as it is for 
 you to escape from it. Sooner or later we shall 
 come to you and claim your life in atonement 
 for the one which you have taken. The same 
 fate shall be meted out to the wretched soldier, 
 Smith, who, though less guilty than yourself, has 
 incurred the same penalty by raising his sacri- 
 legious hand against the chosen of Buddha. If 
 your life is prolonged it is merely that you may 
 have time to repent of your misdeed and to feel 
 the full force of your punishment. And lest you 
 should be tempted [to cast it out of your mind 
 and to forget it, our bell our astral bell, the 
 use of which is one of our occult secrets shall 
 ever remind you of what has been and what is 
 to be. You shall hear it by day and you shall 
 hear it by night, and it will be a sign to you 
 that, do what you may and go where you will,
 
 217 
 
 you can never shake yourself clear of the chelas 
 of Ghoolab Shah. You will never see me more, 
 accursed one, until the day when we come for 
 you. Live in fear, and in that anticipation 
 which is worse than death." With a menacing 
 wave of the hand the figure turned and swept 
 out of my tent into the darkness. 
 
 The instant that the fellow disappeared from 
 my sight I recovered from the lethargy which 
 had fallen upon me. Springing to my feet, I 
 rushed to the opening and looked out. A 
 Sepoy sentry was standing leaning upon his 
 musket, a few paces off. 
 
 " You dog," I said in Hindustani. " What do 
 you mean by letting people disturb me in this 
 way ?" 
 
 The man stared at me in amazement. " Has 
 any one disturbed the Sahib ?" he asked. 
 
 " This instant this moment. You must have 
 seen him pass out of my tent" 
 
 " Surely the Burra Sahib is mistaken," the 
 m\n answered, respectfully but firmly. " I have 
 been here for an hour, and no one has passed 
 from the tent." 
 
 Puzzled and disconcerted, I was sitting by the 
 side of my couch wondering whether the whole 
 tning was a delusion, brought on by the nervous
 
 218 
 
 excitement of our skirmish, when a new marvel 
 overtook me. From over my head there sud* 
 denly sounded a sharp, tinkling sound, like that 
 produced by an empty glass when flipped by the 
 nail, only louder and more intense. I looked up* 
 but nothing was to be seen. I examined the 
 whole interior of the tent carefully, but without 
 discovering any cause for the strange sound. 
 At last, worn out with fatigue, I gave the 
 mystery up, and throwing myself upon the 
 couch was soon fast asleep. When I woke this 
 morning I was inclined to put the whole of my 
 yesterday night's experiences down to imagina. 
 tion, but I was soon disabused of the idea, for I 
 had hardly risen before the same strange sound 
 was repeated in my very ear as loudly, and to 
 all appearance as causelessly, as before. What 
 it is or where it comes from I cannot conceive. I 
 have not heard it since. Can the fellow's threats 
 have something in them and this be the warning 
 bell of which he spoke ? Surely it is impossible. 
 Yet his manner was indescribably impressive. 
 I have tried to set down what he said as accur- 
 ately as I can, but I fear I have omitted a good 
 deal. What is to be the end of this strange 
 affair ? I must go in for a course of religion and 
 holy water. Not a word to Chamberlain or
 
 219 
 
 Elliott. They tell me I am looking like a ghost 
 this morning. 
 
 Evening. Have managed to compare notes 
 with Gunner Rufus Smith of the Artillery, who 
 knocked the old fellow over with the butt of his 
 gun. His experience has been the same as 
 mine. He has heard the sound too. What is 
 the meaning of it all ? My brain is in a whirl. 
 
 Oct. 10 (four days later). God help us ! & 
 
 This last laconic entry terminated the journal. 
 It seemed to me that coming as it did after four 
 days' complete silence it told a clearer tale of 
 a shaken nerve and a broken spirit than could 
 any more elaborate narrative. Pinned on to the 
 journal was a supplementary statement which 
 had evidently been recently added by the 
 general. 
 
 " From that day to this," it said, " I have had 
 no night or day free from the intrusion of that 
 dreadful sound with its accompanying train of 
 thought. Time and custom have brought me no 
 relief, but, on the contrary, as the years pass 
 over my head my physical strength decreases 
 and my nerves become less able to bear up 
 against the continual strain. I am a broken man
 
 220 
 
 In mind and body. I live in a state of tension, 
 always straining my ears for the hated sound, 
 afraid to converse with my fellows for fear of 
 exposing my dreadful condition to them, with 
 no comfort or hope of comfort on this side of the 
 grave. I should be willing, Heaven knows, to 
 die, and yet as each 5th of October comes round 
 I am prostrated with fear because I do not know 
 what strange and terrible experience may be in 
 store for me. Forty years have passed since I 
 slew Ghoolab Shah, and forty times I have gone 
 through all the horrors of death, without attain- 
 ing the blessed peace which lies beyond. I have 
 no means of knowing in what shape my fate will 
 come upon me. I have immured myself in this 
 lonely country, and surrounded myself with 
 barriers, because in my weaker moments my 
 instincts urge me to take some steps for self, 
 protection, but I know well in my heart how 
 futile it all is. They must come quickly now 
 for I grow old, and Nature will forestall them 
 unless they make haste. 
 
 " I take credit to myself that I ha'/e kept my 
 hands off the prussic acid or opium bottle. It 
 has always been in my power to checkmate my 
 occult persecutors in that way, but I have ever 
 held that a man in this world cannot desert his
 
 221 
 
 post until he has been relieved in due course by 
 the authorities. I have had no scruples, how- 
 ever, about exposing myself to danger, and dur- 
 ing the Sikh and Sepoy wars I did all that a man 
 could do to court death. He passed me by, 
 however, and picked out many a young fellow 
 to whom life was only opening and who had 
 everything to live for, while I survived to win 
 crosses and honors which had lost all relish for 
 me. Well, well, these things cannot depend 
 upon chance, and there is no doubt some deep 
 reason for it all. One compensation Providence 
 has made me in the shape of a true and faithful 
 wife, to whom I told my dreadful secret before 
 the wedding, and who nobly consented to share 
 my lot. She has lifted half the burden from my 
 shoulders, but with the effect, poor soul, of 
 crushing her own life beneath its weight. My 
 children, too, have been a comfort to me. Mor= 
 daunt knows all, or nearly all. Gabriel we have 
 endeavored to keep in the dark, though we can 
 not prevent her from knowing that there is 
 something amiss. I should like this statement 
 to be shown to Dr. John Easterling, of Stran- 
 raer. He heard on one occasion this haunting 
 sound. My sad experience may show him that 
 I spoke truth when I said that there was much
 
 222 
 
 knowledge in the world which has never found 
 its way to England yet. 
 
 " J. B. HEATHERSTONE." 
 
 It was going on for dawn by the time that I 
 had finished this extraordinary narrative, to 
 which my sister and Mordaunt Heatherstone 
 listened with the most absorbed attention. 
 Already we could see through the window that 
 the stars had begun to fade and a grey light to 
 appear in the east. The crofter who owned the 
 lurcher dog lived a couple of miles off, so it was 
 time for us to be on foot. Leaving Esther to tell 
 my father the story in such fashion as she might, 
 we thrust some food in our pockets and set off 
 upon our solemn and eventful errand.
 
 221 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 AT THE HOLE OF CREE. 
 
 IT was dark enough when we started to make 
 it no easy matter to find our way across the 
 moors, but as we advanced it grew lighter and 
 lighter, until by the time we reached Fullarton's 
 cabin it was broad daylight. Early as it was, he 
 was up and about, for the Wigtown peasants are 
 an early rising race. We explained our mission 
 to him in as few words as possible, and having 
 made his bargain what Scot ever neglected 
 that preliminary he agreed not only to let us 
 have the use of his dog but to come with us him- 
 self. Mordaunt, in his desire for privacy, would 
 have demurred at this arrangement, but I pointed 
 out to him that we had no idea what was in store 
 for us, and the addition of a strong, able- 
 bodied man to our party might prove to be of 
 the utmost consequence. Again, the dog was 
 less likely to give us trouble if we had its master 
 to control it. My argnments carried the day,
 
 224 
 
 and the biped accompanied us as well as his four, 
 footed companion. 
 
 There was some little similarity between the 
 two, for the man was a tousy-headed fellow with 
 a great mop of yellow hair and a straggling 
 beard, while the dog was of the long-haired, un- 
 kempt breed looking like an animated bundle of 
 oakum. All our way to the Hall its owner kept 
 retailing instances of the creature's sagacity and 
 powers of scent, which, according to his account, 
 were little less than miraculous. His anecdotes 
 had a poor audience, I fear, for my mind was 
 filled with the strange story which I had been 
 reading, while Mordaunt strolled on with wild 
 eyes and feverish cheeks, without a thought for 
 any thing but the problem which we had to solve. 
 Again and again as we topped an eminence, I 
 saw him look eagerly round him in the faint hope 
 of seeing some trace of the absentee, but over 
 the whole expanse of moorland there was no 
 sign of movement or of life. All was dead and 
 silent and deserted. 
 
 Our visit to the Hall was a very brief one, for 
 every minute now was of importance. Mor- 
 daunt rushed in and emerged with an old coat 
 of his father's, which he handed to Fullarton, 
 who held it out to the dog. The intoUigent
 
 225 
 
 brute sniffed at it all over, then ran whining a 
 little way down the avenue, came back to sniff 
 the coat again, and finally elevating its stump of 
 a tail in triumph, uttered a succession of sharp 
 yelps to show that it was satisfied that it had 
 struck the trail. Its owner tied a long cord to 
 its collar to prevent it from going too fast for 
 us, and we all set off upon our search, the dog 
 tugging and straining at its leash in its excite- 
 ment as it followed in the general's footsteps. 
 
 Our way lay for a couple of hundred yards 
 along the high road, and then passed through a 
 gap in the hedge and on to the moor, across 
 which we were led in a bee-line to the north- 
 ward. The sun had by this time risen above the 
 horizon, and the whole countryside looked so 
 fresh and sweet, from the blue, sparkling sea to 
 the purple mountains, that it was difficult to 
 realize how weird and uncanny was the enter- 
 prise upon which we were engaged. 
 
 The scent must have lain strongly upon the 
 ground, for the dog never hesitated nor stopped, 
 dragging its master along at a pace which ren- 
 dered conversation impossible. At one place, 
 in crossing a small stream, we seemed to get off 
 the trail for a few minutes, but our keen-nosed 
 ally SOOQ picked it up upon the 'ther side and
 
 226 
 
 followed it over the trackless moor, whining and 
 yelping all the time in its eagerness. Had we not 
 all three been fleet of foot and long of wind, we 
 could not have persisted in the continuous rapid 
 journey over the roughest of ground, with the 
 heather often well-nigh up to our waists. 
 
 For my own part, I have no idea now, looking 
 back, what goal it was which I expected to 
 reach at the end of our pursuit. I can remem.. 
 ber that my mind was full of the vaguest and 
 most varying speculations. Could it be that the 
 three Buddhists had had a craft in readiness off 
 the coast, and had embarked with their prisoners 
 for the East ? The direction of their track 
 seemed at first to favor this supposition, for it 
 lay in the line of the upper end of the bay, but 
 it ended by branching off and striking inland. 
 Clearly the ocean was not to be our terminus. 
 
 By ten o'clock we had walked close upon 
 twelve miles, and were compelled to call a halt 
 for a few minutes to recover our breath, for the 
 last mile or two we had been breasting the long, 
 wearying slope of the Wigtown hills. From the 
 summit of this range, which is nowhere more 
 than a thousand feet in height, we could see, 
 looking northward, such a scene of bleakness and 
 desolation as can hardly be matched in any
 
 227 
 
 country. Right away to the horizon stretched 
 the broad expanse of mud and of water, min. 
 gled and mixed together in the wildest chaos, 
 like a portion of some world in the process of 
 formation. Here and there on the dun-colored 
 surface of this great marsh there had burst out 
 patches of sickly yellow reeds and of livid, 
 greenish scum, which only served to heighten 
 and intensify the gloomy effect of the dull, mel- 
 ancholy expanse. On the side nearest to us some 
 abandoned peat cuttings showed that ubiquitous 
 man had been at work there, but beyond these 
 few petty scars there was no sign anywhere of 
 human life. Not even a crow or a seagull 
 flapped their way over that hideous desert. 
 
 This is the great bog of Cree, which may be 
 seen in the maps to extend over a considerable 
 surface of the shire of Wigtown. It is a salt- 
 water marsh formed by an inroad of the sea, and 
 so intersected is it with dangerous swamps and 
 treacherous pitfalls of liquid mud, that no man 
 would venture through it unless he had the 
 guidance of one of the few peasants who retain the 
 secret o\ its paths. As we approached the fringe 
 of rushes which marked its border, a foul, dank 
 smell rose up from the stagnant wilderness, as 
 from impure water and decaying vegetation a*
 
 228 
 
 earthy, noisome smell which poisoned the fresh, 
 upland air. So forbidding and gloomy was the 
 aspect of the place that our stout crofter hesi- 
 tated, and it was all that we could do to persuade 
 him to proceed. Our lurcher, however, not 
 being subject to the delicate impressions of our 
 higher organizations, still ran yelping along with 
 its nose on the ground and every fibre of its body 
 quivering with excitement and eagerness. 
 
 There was no difficulty about picking our way 
 through the morass, for wherever the five could 
 go we three could follow. If we could have 
 had any doubts as to our dog's guidance they 
 would all have been removed now, for in the 
 soft, black, oozing soil we could distinctly trace 
 the tracks of the whole party. From these we 
 could see that they had walked abreast, and, 
 furthermore, that each was about equi-distant 
 from the other. Clearly, then, no physical force 
 had been used in taking the general and his 
 companion along. The compulsion had been 
 psychical and not material. 
 
 Once within the swamp we had to be careful 
 not to deviate from the narrow track, which 
 offered a firm foothold. On each side lay shallow 
 sheets of stagnant water overlying a treacherous 
 bottom of semifluid mud, vSich rose above th
 
 229 
 
 surface here and there in moist, sweltering 
 banks, mottled over with occasional patches of 
 unhealthy vegetation. Great purple and yellow 
 fungi had broken out in a dense eruption, as 
 though nature were afflicted with a foul disease, 
 which manifested itself by this crop of plague 
 soots. Here and there dark, crab-like creatures 
 scuttled across our path, and hideous, flesh- 
 colored worms wriggled and writhed amid the 
 sickly reeds. Swarms of buzzing, piping insects 
 rose up at every step and formed a dense cloud 
 around our heads, settling on our hands and 
 faces and inoculating us with their filthy venom. 
 Never had I ventured into so pestilent and for- 
 bidding a place. Mordaunt Heatherstone strode 
 on, however, with a set purpose upon his swarthy 
 brow, and we could but follow him, determined 
 to stand by him to the end of the adventure. 
 
 As we advanced the path grew narrower and 
 narrower until, as we saw by the tracks, our pre- 
 decessors had been compelled to walk in single 
 file. Fullarton was leading us with the dog, 
 Mordaunt behind him, while I brought up the 
 rear. The peasant had been sulky and surly for 
 a little time back, hardly answering when spoken 
 to, but he now stopped short and positively rc 
 fused to go a step further.
 
 230 
 
 " It*s no canny,** he said ; " besides, I ken 
 where it will lead us tae 1" 
 
 " Where, then ?" I asked. 
 
 " Tae the Hole o' Cree," he answered. " It's 
 no far frae here I'm thinking." 
 
 " The Hole of Cree ! What is that, then ?" 
 
 " It's a great, muckle hole in the ground that 
 gangs awa' doun so deep that naebody could 
 ever reach the bottom. Indeed there are folk 
 wha say that it's just a door leadin' intae the 
 bottomless pit itsel 1 ." 
 
 " You have been there, then ?" I asked. 
 
 " Been there !" he cried. " What would I be 
 doin' at the Hole o' Cree? No, I've never been 
 there, nor any other man in his senses." 
 
 " How do you know about it, then ?" 
 
 "My great grandfeyther had been there, and 
 that's how I ken," Fullarton answered. " He 
 was fou' one Saturday nicht and he went for a 
 bet. He didna like tae talk aboot it afterwards, 
 and he wouldna* tell a' what befell him, but he 
 was aye feared o' the very name. He's the first 
 Fullarton that's been at the Hole o' Cree, and 
 he'll be the last for me. If ye'll tak' my advice 
 ye'Il just gie the matter up and gang hame again 
 for there's no guid tae be got oot o' this place." 
 
 " We shall go on with you or without you,*
 
 Mordaunt answered. " Let us have your dog 
 and we can pick you up on our way back." 
 
 " Na, na," he cried ; " I'll no hae my dog 
 scared \vi* bogles and running down Auld Nick 
 as if he were a hare. The dog shall bide \vi' ( - 
 me." 
 
 " The dog shall go with us," said my compan- 
 ion, with his eyes blazing. " We have no time 
 to argue with you. Here's a five-pound note. 
 Let us have the dog, or, by heavens, I shall take 
 it by force and throw you in the bog if you 
 hinder us." I could realize the Heatherstone of 
 forty years ago when I saw the fierce and sud- 
 den wrath which lit up the features of his son. 
 
 Either the bribe or the threat had the desired 
 effect ; for the fellow grabbed at the money with 
 one hand while with the other he surrendered 
 the leash which held the lurcher. Leaving him 
 to retrace his steps, we continued to make our 
 way into the utmost recesses of the great swamp. 
 The tortuous path grew less and less defined as 
 we proceeded, and was even covered in places 
 with water ; but the increasing excitement of the 
 hound and the sight of the deep foot-marks in 
 the mud, stimulated us to push on. At last, 
 after struggling through a grove of high bul- 
 rushes, we came on a spot the gloomy horror of
 
 232 
 
 which might have furnished Dante with a fresh 
 terror for his Inferno. 
 
 The whole bog in this part appeared to have 
 sunk in, forming a great funnel-shaped depres- 
 sion, which terminated in the centre in a circular 
 rift or opening about forty paces in diameter. 
 It was a whirlpool a perfect maelstrom of mud 
 sloping down on every side to this silent and 
 awful chasm. Clearly this was the spot which, 
 under the name of the Hole of Cree, bore such 
 a sinister reputation among the rustics. I could 
 not wonder at its impressing their imagination, 
 for a weirder or more gloomy scene, or one 
 more worthy of the avenue which led to it, 
 could not be conceived. The steps passed down 
 the declivity which surrounded the abyss, and 
 we followed them with a sinking feeling in our 
 hearts, as we realized that this was the end of 
 our search. A little way from the downward 
 path was the return trail made by the feet of 
 those who had come back from the chasm's 
 edge. Our eyes fell upon these tracks at the 
 same moment, and we each gave a cry of horror, 
 and stood gazing speechlessly at them. For 
 there, in those blurred footmarks, the whole 
 drama was revealed, five had gone down, but 
 only three had returned.
 
 233 
 
 None shall ever know the details of that 
 strange tragedy. There was no mark of struggle 
 or sign of attempt at escape. We knelt at the 
 edge of the Hole and endeavored to pierce the 
 unfathomable gloom which shrouded it. A faint, 
 sickly exhalation seemed to rise from its depths, 
 and there was a distant, hurrying, clattering 
 sound as of waters in the bowels of the earth. A 
 great stone lay embedded in the mud, and this I 
 hurled over, but we never heard thud or splash 
 to show that it had reached the bottom. As we 
 hung over the noisome chasm a sound did at 
 last rise to our ears out of its murky depths. 
 High, clear, and throbbing, it tinkled for an in- 
 stant out of the abyss, to be succeeded by the 
 same deadly stillness which had preceded it. I 
 do not wish to appear to be superstitious, or 
 to put down to extraordinary causes that which 
 may have a natural explanation. That one keen 
 note may have been some strange water sound 
 produced far down in the bowels of the earth. 
 It may have been that or it may have been that 
 sinister bell of which I had heard so much. Be 
 this as it may, it was the only sign that rose to 
 us from the last terrible resting-place of the two 
 who had paid the debt which had so long been 
 owing.
 
 234 
 
 We joined our voices in a call with the un- 
 reasoning obstinacy with which men will cling 
 to hope, but no answer came back to us save a 
 thousand hollow reverberations from the depths 
 beneath. Footsore and heart-sick, we retraced 
 our steps and climbed the slimy slope once 
 more. 
 
 " What shall we do, Mordaunt ?" I asked, in a 
 subdued voice. " We can but pray that their 
 souls may rest in peace." 
 
 Young Heatherstone looked at me with flash- 
 ing eyes. " This may be all according to occult 
 laws," he cried, " but we shall see what the laws 
 of England have to say upon it. I suppose a 
 chela may be hanged as well as any other man. 
 It may not be too late yet to run them down. 
 Here, good dog, good dog here !" He pulled 
 the hound over and set it on the track of the 
 three men. The creature sniffed at it once or 
 twice, and then, falling upon its stomach, with 
 bristling hair and protruding tongue, it lay 
 shivering and trembling, a very embodiment of 
 canine terror. 
 
 " You see," I said, " it is no use contending 
 against those who have powers at their com- 
 mand which we cannot even give a name to. 
 There is nothing for it but to accept the i
 
 table, and to hope that these poor men may 
 meet with some compensation in another world 
 for all that they have suffered in this." 
 
 " And be free from all devilish religions and 
 their murderous worshippers !" Mordaunt cried, 
 furiously. 
 
 Justice compelled me to acknowledge in my 
 own heart that the murderous spirit had been 
 set on foot by the Christian before it was taken 
 up by the Buddhists, but I forebore to remark 
 upon it for fear of irritating my companion. 
 For a long time I could not draw him away from 
 the scene of his father's death, but at last, by 
 repeated arguments and reasonings, I succeeded 
 in making him realize how useless and unprofit- 
 able any further efforts on our part must neces- 
 sarily prove, and in inducing him to return with 
 me to Cloomber. Oh ! the wearisome, tedious 
 journey ! It had seemed long enough when we 
 had some slight flicker of hope, or at least of 
 expectation, before us, but now that our worst 
 fears were fulfilled it appeared interminable. 
 We picked up our peasant guide at the outskirts 
 of the marsh, and having restored his dog we let 
 him find his own way home, without telling him 
 anything of the results of our expedition. We 
 ourselves plodded all day over the moors with
 
 236 
 
 heavy feet and heavier hearts until we saw the 
 ill-omened tower of Cloomber, and at last, as the 
 sun was setting, found ourselves once more 
 beneath its roof. 
 
 There is no need for me to enter into further 
 details, or to describe the grief which our tidings 
 conveyed to mother and to daughter. Their 
 long expectation of some calamity was not suffi- 
 cient to prepare them for the terrible reality. 
 For weeks my poor Gabriel hovered between 
 life and death, and though she came round at 
 last, thanks to the nursing of my sister and the 
 professional skill of Dr. John Easterling, of 
 Stranraer, she has never to this day entirely re- 
 covered her former vigor. Mordaunt, too, suf- 
 fered much for some time, and it was only after 
 our removal to Edinburgh that he rallied from 
 the shock which he had undergone. As to poor 
 Mrs. Heatherstone, neither medical attention 
 nor change of air can ever have a permanent 
 effect upon her. Slowly and surely, but very 
 placidly, she has declined in health and strength, 
 until it is evident that in a very few weeks at the 
 most she will have rejoined her husband and 
 restored to him the one thing which he must 
 have grudged to leave behind. 
 
 The Laird of Branksome came home from
 
 237 
 
 Italy restored in health, with the result that w 
 were compelled to return once more to Edin- 
 burgh. The change was agreeable to us, for 
 recent events had cast a cloud over our country 
 life and had surrounded us with unpleasant 
 associations. Besides, a highly honorable and 
 remunerative appointment in connection with 
 the University library had become vacant, and 
 had, through the kindness of the late Sir Alex- 
 ander Grant, been offered to my father, who, as 
 may be imagined, lost no time in accepting so 
 congenial a post. In this way we came back to 
 Edinburgh very much more important people 
 than we left it, and with no further reason to be 
 uneasy about the details of housekeeping. But, 
 in truth, the whole household has been dissolved, 
 for I have been married for some months to my 
 dear Gabriel, and Esther is to become Mrs. 
 Heatherstone upon the 23rd of the month. If 
 she makes him as good a wife as his sister has 
 made to me, we may both set ourselves down as 
 fortunate men. 
 
 These mere domestic episodes are, as I have 
 already explained, introduced only because I can- 
 not avoid alluding to them. My object in draw- 
 ing up this statement and publishing the evidence 
 which corroborates it, was certainly not to parade
 
 238 
 
 my private affairs before the public, but to leave 
 on record an authentic narrative of a most 
 remarkable series of events. This I have endeav- 
 ored to do in as methodical a manner as 
 possible, exaggerating nothing and suppressing 
 nothing. The reader has now the evidence 
 before him, and can form his own opinions 
 unaided by me as to the causes of the disappear- 
 ance and death of Rufus Smith and of John 
 Berthier Heatherstone, V.C., C.B. 
 
 There is only one point which is still dark to 
 me. Why the chelas of Ghoolab Shah should 
 have removed their victims to the desolate Hole 
 of Cree instead of taking their lives at Cloomber, 
 is, I confess, a mystery to me. In dealing with 
 occult laws, however, we must allow for our own 
 complete ignorance of the subject. Did we 
 know more we might see that there was some 
 analogy between that foul bog and the sacrilege 
 which had been committed, and that their ritual 
 and customs demanded that just such a death 
 was the one appropriate to the crime. On this 
 point I should be sorry to be dogmatic, but at 
 least we must allow that the Buddhist priests 
 must have had some very good cause for the 
 course of action which they so deliberately 
 carried out.
 
 239 
 
 Months afterwards I saw a short paragraph in 
 the Star of India announcing that three eminent 
 Buddhists Lai Hoomi, Mowdar Khan and Ram 
 Singh had just returned in the steamship Deccan 
 from a short trip to Europe. The very next item 
 was devoted to an account of the life and services 
 of Major-General Heatherstone, " who has lately 
 disappeared from his country house in Wigtown- 
 shire, and who, there is too much reason to fear, 
 has been drowned." I wonder if by chance there 
 was any other human eye but mine which traced 
 a connection between these paragraphs. I never 
 showed them to my wife or to Mordaunt, and 
 they will only know of their existence when they 
 read these pages. 
 
 I don't know that there is any other point 
 which needs clearing up. The intelligent reader 
 will have already seen the reasons for the gen- 
 eral's fear of dark faces, of wandering men (not 
 knowing how his pursuers might come after 
 him), of visitors (from the same cause and because 
 his hateful bell was liable to sound at all times). 
 His broken sleep led him to wander about the 
 house at night, and the lamps which he burned 
 in every room were no doubt to prevent his 
 imagination from peopling the darkness with 
 terrors. Lastly, his elaborate precautions were,
 
 240 
 
 as he has himself explained, rather the result of 
 a feverish desire to do something than in the 
 expectation that he could really ward off his 
 fate. 
 
 Science will tell you that there are no such 
 powers as those claimed by the Eastern mystics. 
 I, John Fothergill West, can confidently answer 
 that science is wrong, and invite the reader's 
 attention to a pithy, if disrespectful, aphorism 
 of Baron Hellenbach. For what is science? 
 Science is the consensus of opinion of scientific 
 men, and history has shown that it is slow to 
 accept a truth. Science sneered at Newton for 
 twenty years. Science proved mathematically 
 that an iron ship could not swim, and science 
 declared that a steamship could not cross the 
 Atlantic. Like Goethe's Mephistopheles, our 
 wise professor's forte is to " stets verneineny 
 Thomas Didymus is, to use his own jargon, his 
 prototype. Let him learn that if he will but 
 cease to believe in the infallibility of his own 
 methods, and will look to the East, from which 
 all great movements come, he will find there a 
 school of philosophers and of savants who, work- 
 ing on different lines to his own, are many 
 thousand years ahead of him in all the essentials 
 of knowledge.
 
 241 
 
 THE OCCULT PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 ADDENDUM. 
 BY MR. MORDAUNT HEATHERSTONE. 
 
 I HAVE just looked [over the proof sheets of 
 my good friend's account of the events which 
 led up to the death of my father, and I am able 
 to endorse it on every point save, indeed that 
 he lays too little stress on the kindness and 
 devotion which he displayed himself through. 
 out. I have asked him, however, before sending 
 his proofs finally to the press, to allow me to 
 make this small addition in order that I may say 
 a few words upon these Indian occults of whom 
 so little is known. In this appendix form, any 
 reader is at liberty to neglect it ; but should he 
 be interested in the subject, I have endeavored 
 to collect a little information for him. 
 
 The Eastern adepts exist at present principally 
 in the north of India and in Thibet, though in 
 former days it is probable that their organiza- 
 tion was much more widespread. Under the 
 various names of the Egyptian priests, Chaldean
 
 242 
 
 Magi, Essenes, Gnostics, Theurgic Neo-Pla. 
 tonists, and Seers, we catch glimpses of them 
 throughout history. They form the closest and 
 most important secret society which has ever 
 been organized a society to which any suitable 
 man may gain admission, but which is girt 
 round with such physical terrors, so much 
 bodily privation and discipline, that few have 
 the courage and hardihood to persevere to the 
 end. Those who are earnest and resolute 
 enough to attain full initiation have, however, 
 their full reward for all that they have gone 
 through, for they attain such knowledge and 
 such powers as raise them far above the ruck 
 of mankind. 
 
 The knowledge ot the occult philosophers is 
 both physical and metaphysical, but it is to the 
 latter branch, and especially to the human soul 
 and its destiny, that they have devoted most 
 attention. Their physical knowledge, however, 
 and their power of manipulating those secret 
 1 laws by which Nature builds or destroys, are 
 far in excess of anything known to European 
 science. It must be remembered that our own 
 scientific results are the results of a few hundred 
 years, whereas the occult philosophy has been 
 the work of the very cream of humanity, extend-
 
 243 
 
 ing over an unbroken period of at least twenty 
 thousand years, during which time every adept 
 has handed down his powers to his initiates 
 ^exactly as they were handed down to him, or 
 with such additions as his life of study has enabled 
 him to make. Wonderful as are the powers to 
 which these men have attained, they are the 
 first to disclaim any supernatural source for 
 them. They arise entirely from an intimate 
 knowledge of the nature of things and a deep 
 insight into the hidden forces which pervade 
 the universe. The whole race may hope some 
 day to attain the learning which they have 
 already acquired. 
 
 One of the first lessons which the occult initiate 
 has to learn is that wisdom is not to be implanted 
 in any mind by the mere process of study and of 
 instruction. The soil must be prepared before 
 this most precious seed can be committed to it. 
 The keenest and most receptive intellect which 
 is the seat also of pride, of avarice, of sensuality, 
 of selfishness or the love of comfort, can never 
 hope to surmo'int the first of the ordeals which 
 the occult aspirant has to pass. These weeds 
 must all be thoroughly and remorselessly eradi- 
 cated before the garden can be planted. For 
 seven years the young chela devotes himself td
 
 244 
 
 this struggle for the mastery over himself, untH, 
 if he be successful, he finds himself pure in mind 
 and body, free from gross animal instincts, 
 indifferent to personal comfort, and with all the 
 spiritual part of his nature developed at the 
 expense of the bestial. He is then in a condition 
 to receive the first teachings which will lead him 
 on to the higher path. Many, of course, break 
 down in this preliminary process, and are never 
 deemed worthy of the honor of initiation ; but 
 the very essence of the order is that it should be 
 select. In this way the early training comes 
 from within, not from without. To use their 
 o wn expression, " an adept becomes he is not 
 made." 
 
 And what are the results obtained by this most 
 ancient and stringent school of knowledge? By 
 the very nature of things we outsiders can only 
 have vague ideas of the few which are adapted 
 to our understanding. The little which we know 
 is probably the mere fringe of the subject. Yet 
 they comprise some fairly weighty adjuncts to 
 our stock of facts. 
 
 In the first place, they have proved without 
 the shadow of a doubt that man possesses a soul 
 by the simple expedient of separating it from 
 the body and of rejoining them at pleasure. An
 
 245 
 
 adept can put off his body as he would put off 
 his greatcoat, and can travel in his soul with the 
 rapidity of thought to the other end of the 
 world. This endows him with practical om- 
 niscience as far as m undane affairs are concerned. 
 Again, they have satisfied themselves that the 
 soul is itself a material thing, containing within 
 it a far more ethereal essence, known as the 
 spirit. When Paul of Tarsus says that man 
 consists of a body, a soul and a spirit, he is not 
 indulging in vain surmise, but is stating concisely 
 the conclusions arrived at by the occult school 
 to which there is every reason to think that he 
 belonged. 
 
 Again, the adepts claim to communicate with 
 each other by means of thought-transferrence 
 and not by words. The initiated can therefore 
 talk as easily at the distance of a thousand miles 
 as if they were in the same room. Their desolate 
 retreats and caves in the Himalayas, which seem 
 so lonely to the ignorant, are really foci of 
 mental activity and interchange of views. To 
 attract each other's attention when they wish to 
 communicate, they have the power of sounding 
 that bell-like, tingling alarm which played so 
 prominent a part in the case of my poor father. 
 
 They assert again, and support their assertion
 
 by proofs, that they have such a mastery over 
 the subtle chemistry of Nature that they can 
 take the elements from the atmosphere and com- 
 bine them or mould them into any form they 
 please, so as to make any visible object by the 
 synthesis of invisible atoms. They can resolve 
 a solid substance into its most minute molecules, 
 waft those molecules on an occult current to any 
 distance, and there unite them so as to form the 
 original object exactly as it was before. In this 
 manner a block of marble has been conveyed in 
 an instant from Bombay to Calcutta, and letters 
 have been sent with a rapidity which would 
 render the telegraph obsolete. 
 
 These are one or two of the minor results 
 claimed by the Eastern philosophers, and surely, 
 if they profess to have attained nothing else, 
 their system deserves some attention from the 
 scientists of the West. The adepts themselves, 
 however, in discussing the question, dismiss 
 these physical phenomena as puerile manifesta- 
 tions, useful enough for service in this world, 
 but of no permanent or real importance. The 
 real value of their system lies, they declare, in 
 its metaphysical or religious aspect, and there 
 they claim to have cast a flood of light upon the 
 destiny of the soul which will change religion
 
 247 
 
 from a mere speculation or aspiration to one of 
 the exact science as demonstrable and as certain 
 as geometry. Into these higher regions of the 
 esoteric system none can penetrate save those 
 who have already mastered the inferior grades, 
 and been chastened in mind and body. 
 
 Of course the objection would at once occur 
 to any Western reader that it was cxtremelv 
 improbable that a clique of men could keep 
 their knowledge to themselves, and that if it 
 were possible it is still reprehensible, since such 
 knowledge is intended for the use of the whole 
 human race. To this the occultist replies that 
 the powers which are acquired by his system 
 are of such a formidable nature that they 
 might be terribly abused if they fell into the 
 wrong hands. He considers, therefore, that the 
 human race is not yet prepared for the just exer- 
 cise of these forces, and that a great responsi- 
 bility rests with his order to test every candi- 
 date for initiation in the most severe manner, 
 and so to insure that no unworthy man should 
 ever gain admission to the brotherhood. This 
 is the adept's reply, and, right or wrong, he in- 
 flexibly adheres to the line of conduct which he 
 has laid down for himself. 
 
 For the information which I have jotted down
 
 2 4 8 
 
 here I am indebted partly to my own reading 
 partly to what I have heard from my father, 
 and most of all to Mr. A. P. Sinnett, for his ex- 
 cellent summary of the occult philosophy. 
 (" The Occult World." Trubner and Co., 1883.) 
 I cannot supplement my account better than by 
 adding one or two of Mr. Sinnett's clear and for- 
 cible statements. 
 
 " The whole edifice of occultism," he writes, 
 " from basement to roof, is so utterly strange to 
 ordinary conceptions that it is difficult to know 
 how to begin an explanation of its contents. 
 How could one describe a calculating machine 
 to an audience unfamiliar with the simplest me- 
 chanical contrivances and knowing nothing of 
 arithmetic? And the highly-cultured classes of 
 modern Europe as regards the achievements of 
 occultism are, in spite of the perfection of their 
 literary scholarship and the exquisite precision 
 of their attainments in their own departments of 
 science, in the position as regards occultism of 
 knowing nothing about the A. B. C. of the sub- 
 ject, nothing about the capacities of the soul at 
 all as distinguished from the capacities of body 
 and soul combined. The occultists have for 
 ages devoted themselves to that study chiefly ; 
 they have accomplished results in connection
 
 249 
 
 with it whi~h are absolutely bewildering in thehr 
 magnificence ; but, suddenly introduced to 
 some of these, the prosaic intelligence is stag- 
 gered, and feels in a world of miracle and en- 
 chantment." 
 
 In another part of his interesting work Mr 
 Sinnett deals with sounds produced at a distance 
 by adepts which correspond to those which 
 haunted my father for so long. Of these he has 
 had personal experience. " It is never loud," he 
 says ; " at least, I have never heard it very lcs*d ; 
 but it is always clear and distinct to a remark- 
 able extent. If you lightly strike the edge of a 
 thin claret glass with a knife you may get a sound 
 which it would be difficult to persuade any one 
 had come from another room ; but the occult 
 bell sound is like that, only purer and clearer, 
 with no subsound of jarring in it whatever, . . 
 The bell sounds are not mere sportive illustra. 
 tions of the properties of the currents which are 
 set in action to produce them. They serve the 
 direct practical purpose among occultists of a 
 telegraphic call-bell. It appears that where 
 trained occultists are concerned, so that the 
 mysterious magnetic connection which enables 
 them to communicate ideas is once established, 
 they can produce the bell sounds at any distance
 
 250 
 
 in the neighborhood of the fellow initiate whose 
 attention they wish to attract." From my 
 father's case it seems that this bell sound is used 
 not merely for the purpose of communication, 
 but also to enable the adepts to retain their hold 
 over any individual and to inform them exactly 
 where he was that they might lay hands upon 
 him at any moment. 
 
 These few additional particulars may throw 
 some light upon any obscure points in the state- 
 ment which has been so concisely and truthfully 
 drawn up by my friend and brother, John Fotlv 
 ergill West. 
 
 THE
 
 The 
 
 Mistress of Bonaventure 
 
 By HAROLD BINDLOSS 
 
 Author of "Alton of Somarco," "Cattle Baron's Daughter," etc. 
 
 IN the " Mistress of Bonaventure " we have a vivid, realistic story 
 of early settlement life in the prairie lands of the Canadian 
 North- West, among the ranchers of the region. 
 
 The story is a delightfully told one, and full of intense human 
 interest, especially as it is checkered by incidents connected with the 
 conditions of settlement the paying up of the sums due to the early 
 land grabbing companies, with their often exorbitant and usurious 
 rates of interest and other charges. 
 
 Interest is added to the novel by the lifelike account given of the 
 hardships of early settlement in the region by the characters who 
 entertainingly figure in the tale and by the romantic incidents which 
 happen in the elegant surroundings of Bonaventure Ranch, with its 
 sweet, gracious mistress of the home : as well as by the plucky fight 
 which young Rancher Ormesby takes up against the leech money- 
 lender and land-agent Cane. 
 
 Realistic are those portions of the novel in which the author 
 sketches aspects of life among the ranching community, as well as the 
 country itself ; while delightful are the glimpses the reader gets of the 
 sweet heroine of the story, Lucille Haldane and her gentle, hospitable 
 father, and engrossing the chapters that deal with Rancher Ormes- 
 by *s tender regard for the lovable Mistress of Bonaventure and his 
 final suit for her hand. 
 
 12mo, Cloth, Gilt Top Price $1.00 Net
 
 &ew Fiction 
 
 
 The Serf 
 
 A tale of the times of King Stephen 
 By GUY THORNE 
 
 Author of " When it was Dark " 
 
 THE action of the story takes place in the early mediaeval ages, 
 the actual date being about 1 1 36, that period of anarchy and 
 wickedness which has had no parallel in English history. 
 From the first page to the last the action of the story rushes on with 
 an impetuosity and force which will carry the reader with it to the 
 last words. How the poor serfs rose in their misery and avenged 
 themselves upon their tyrant, how they fled through the great Hilgay 
 fen, and how the final tragedy was enacted on the top of the Out- 
 fangthef Tower at sunset, will interest every reader, old and young 
 alike. 
 
 "The Serf" contains perhaps the most powerful and amazing 
 picture of days long past that the English reading public has been 
 privileged to peruse since the publication of " The Cloister and the 
 Hearth." It is a remarkable book and one that should be widely 
 read. Cleveland Plain-Dealer. 
 
 It is the blackest period in English history following the Norman 
 Conquest, a period when the great nobles did what was right in 
 their own eyes, when the crown was without authority and when the 
 barons fought each other and plundered the common people just as 
 they saw fit. Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 Price $1.00 net
 
 Nen> Fiction 
 
 SINLESS 
 
 A 
 By MAUD H. YARDLEY 
 
 A LADY of great loveliness descended the broad staircase of 
 the Victoria Hotel and, against the advice of the porter, 
 walked forth into the fog. This was in the second chap- 
 ter. We had no trouble in making her out to be Mrs. Boyd. There 
 is excellent description of how she got lost in the fog; of how she was 
 rescued by a gallant wayfarer who smoked and had matches; of how 
 she got to Charing Cross Station somewhat late; of how Boyd found 
 her standing by the bookstall just as had been arranged ; how they 
 went together to the Victoria Hotel, where the lady had already 
 secured a delightful apartment; how they dined tete-a-tete; how 
 happy they were for the rest of the evening ; how the porter after 
 breakfast next morning appeared to be surprised on hearing that 
 Boyd's name was Boyd, and how the lady was more astonished than 
 the porter, since she had supposed that his name was Forbes. 
 
 Now, all this is and was most incredible ; but we had no notion 
 that it was until after the appearance of the porter. It is to be said 
 for Maud H. Yardley that she manages her revelations very skil- 
 fully. It is also to be said for her that she is at once ingenious and 
 discreet in her provision and treatment of what follows in the story. 
 She relates further complications and difficulties with entire under- 
 standing of what is dramatic and interesting, and at the same time 
 delicately. 
 
 Boyd was a thoroughly good fellow. Mrs. Forbes was just as 
 lovely as she seemed when she came down the Victoria Hotel stair- 
 case. Maud H. Yardley conceived a sufficiently startling plot, but 
 she is a good story teller. New York Sun. 
 
 Price $1.00 net
 
 The Counterstroke 
 
 By AMBROSE PRATT 
 
 Author of "Franks: Duellist" 
 
 T""\LOT and counterplot abound in this powerfully written and enthralling story. 
 
 I ^ which deals with Nihilism and its fiendish machinations, happily varied by 
 the " counterstrokes " throughout aimed at in the novel, in the interest of 
 humanity, and by a finale tragic in its consequences to the arch-prime-mover 
 and general-in-chief of the malign order. The novel is a strong, dramatic* 
 
 ally conceived and thrillingly worked out one. 
 
 Size 5^x7*: Price $1.00 net 
 
 Another Zenda or Graustark Story 
 
 The Knight of the Silver Star 
 
 By PERCY BREBNER 
 
 Author of " Princeis Maritza " 
 
 A story of love in an isolated kingdom. 
 
 The Princess is wonderfully beautiful : 
 
 the hero marvellously strong and valiant ; 
 
 the numerous perils they encounter, exciting and varied ; 
 
 the plot is well put together ; 
 
 the story is a thoroughly good one. 
 
 1 2mo, Cloth, cat Top Price $ 1 .00 Net
 
 Jl New Story by General Charles King 
 
 Captured 
 
 i The Story of Sandy Ray 
 
 By 
 
 General Charles King 
 
 One of his best. Boston Journal. 
 
 Another rattling good war story. ttttsburg 'Press. 
 
 There are many new phases of army life that make it, perhaps, the 
 most interesting of any of his. Boston transcript. 
 
 No other writer of army stories ever presents the convincing views 
 of military life that flow so readily from the pen of this enormously 
 popular author. Philadelphia Telegraph. 
 
 The atmosphere, the characters, and the constructive quality in the 
 plot are up to the popular writer's usual good standard and all com- 
 bine to make a thoroughly readable story. Chicago Daily News. 
 
 In " Captured," Gen. King tells a story of our army in the Phil- 
 ippines a scene which permits the employment of many picturesque 
 expedients and the introduction of many lively persons, including 
 savages, smugglers, scoundrelly white adventurers and army heroes of 
 the Sidney stripe. Some of the characters of former novels reappear 
 to advantage herein. The comic element is provided by a pompous 
 martinet officer, who strives to force upon his disgusted American 
 subordinates alien military customs and restrictions. General King 
 always manages to sprinkle his novels with episodes of terror and 
 suspense, and in this book, as in its predecessors, he is at no loss for 
 fresh and vivid material. New York Tribune. 
 
 Size5Xx7#. Illustrated. Price $1.50
 
 9999999999999999999999 
 
 The Spotter 
 
 Jl Story of the Early 'Days in 
 the Pennsylvania Oil Fields . . 
 
 By 
 W. W. CANFIELD 
 
 PVUNCAN CAMERON is a Pennsylvania farmer. 
 ^ the owner of a large tract of land which the proto- 
 type of the Standard Oil Company desires to secure. 
 Cameron for a long time successfully resists the efforts to 
 compel him to sell, and The Spotter describes what hap- 
 pened to him, as well as what befell members of several 
 families who are made wealthy by the sale of their oil 
 lands. Those who oppose the advance of the monopoly 
 feel its hand in no uncertain weight, for there is little hesi- 
 tancy in the methods adopted to break the fortunes and 
 prospects of those who do not quietly submit. 
 
 The story describes the romantic side of the influx of a 
 large number of speculators, operators and boomers, who 
 find a country that heretofore has been almost isolated. 
 
 Cloth, cat Top. Price $1.50
 
 Los 
 
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 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
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