St. Ruth at midnight. And as to Dousterswivel, although the discovery be
owing to his science, yet, to tell the truth, I do not think he would
have had firmness of mind to have gone through with it if I had not been
beside him."

"Ay! indeed?" said Oldbuck, in the tone used when one wishes to hear the
end of a story before making any comment.

"Yes truly," continued Sir Arthur--"I assure you I was upon my guard--we
did hear some very uncommon sounds, that is certain, proceeding from
among the ruins."

"Oh, you did?" said Oldbuck; "an accomplice hid among them, I suppose?"

"Not a jot," said the Baronet;--"the sounds, though of a hideous and
preternatural character, rather resembled those of a man who sneezes
violently than any other--one deep groan I certainly heard besides; and
Dousterswivel assures me that he beheld the spirit Peolphan, the Great
Hunter of the North--(look for him in your Nicolaus Remigius, or Petrus
Thyracus, Mr. Oldbuck)--who mimicked the motion of snuff-taking and its
effects."

"These indications, however singular as proceeding from such a personage,
seem to have been _apropos_ to the matter," said the Antiquary; "for you
see the case, which includes these coins, has all the appearance of being
an old-fashioned Scottish snuff-mill. But you persevered, in spite of the
terrors of this sneezing goblin?"

"Why, I think it probable that a man of inferior sense or consequence
might have given way; but I was jealous of an imposture, conscious of the