Hammond, "and may be found, if at all, among the dead of that period."

"And they--their miserable dust, at least, which is all that still
exists of them--were buried in the graveyard under these windows," said
the Doctor. "What marks, I say,--for you might as well seek a vanished
wave of the sea, as a grave that surged upward so long ago."

"On the gravestone," said Hammond, "a slate one, there was rudely
sculptured the impress of a foot. What it signifies I cannot
conjecture, except it had some reference to a certain legend of a
bloody footstep, which is currently told, and some token of which yet
remains on one of the thresholds of the ancient mansion-house."

Ned and Elsie had withdrawn themselves from the immediate vicinity of
the fireside, and were playing at fox and geese in a corner near the
window. But little Elsie, having very quick ears, and a faculty of
attending to more affairs than one, now called out, "Doctor Grim, Ned
and I know where that gravestone is."

"Hush, Elsie," whispered Ned, earnestly.

"Come forward here, both of you," said Doctor Grimshawe.




CHAPTER IX.


The two children approached, and stood before the Doctor and his guest,