opened. There was a silence in which I could hear my poor heart
thumping, and then when I looked again the figure was gone, and the
low creak, creak was heard once more upon the stairs. Jim sprang
after it, and I was left half-fainting in the moonlight.

But it was not for long. He was down again in a minute, and,
passing his hand under my arm, he half led and half carried me out
of the house. It was not until we were in the fresh night air again
that he opened his mouth.

"Can you stand, Roddy?"

"Yes, but I'm shaking."

"So am I," said he, passing his hand over his forehead. "I ask your
pardon, Roddy. I was a fool to bring you on such an errand. But I
never believed in such things. I know better now."

"Could it have been a man, Jim?" I asked, plucking up my courage now
that I could hear the dogs barking on the farms.

"It was a spirit, Rodney."

"How do you know?"

"Because I followed it and saw it vanish into a wall, as easily as
an eel into sand. Why, Roddy, what's amiss now?"

My fears were all back upon me, and every nerve creeping with
horror.