injunction, he crept quietly to the unglazed window and looked through
the opening. Not a sound revealed the presence of any human being
within. A silence, accentuated no doubt by his startled imagination,
seemed to hang over the place. He was starting on again when a strange
sight met his eyes. Suddenly out of the darkness of the cottage shone
out the figure of a human hand! It seemed to glow with a faint greenish
light, and it held a long pointed knife, which burned with the same pale
hue. Nothing else could be seen except a kind of gauzy floating sleeve,
from which the mysterious hand emerged. Aleck had no wish to investigate
further, but promptly took to his heels, and made for home with all
speed, frightened out of his wits.

As luck would have it, the clock by which he had started was fast, and he
was home in good time. The circumstance tended to render his story more
worthy of credence than it might otherwise have proved. But his evident
terror, and the very incoherence of his narrative, told in his favor.

"He's been a truthful lad all his days," his mother proudly testified;
"while as to drink--not a drop of spirits has passed his lips sin' I gev'
him a wee drop for the spasms when he wes a wean!"

And Aleck's blushing approval of the maternal statement bore witness to
its truth.

I confess that the story did not in the least rouse any superstitious
credence in my mind. Luminous paint was not such an unknown quantity to
me as it would be to this country-bred lad and his family. I took care,
however, to breathe no word of my suspicions; for I meant to make a few
investigations on my own account. So with the looked-for expressions of
astonishment, I took my leave.