Thing wi' the gun."

Aweel, so it was agreed between them twa. I was just a bairn, an' clum
in Sandie's boat, whaur I thocht I would see the best of the employ. My
grandsire gied Sandie a siller tester to pit in his gun wi' the leid
draps, bein' mair deidly again bogles. And then the ae boat set aff for
North Berwick, an' the tither lay whaur it was and watched the wanchancy
thing on the brae-side.

A' the time we lay there it lowped and flang and capered and span like a
teetotum, and whiles we could hear it skelloch as it span. I hae seen
lassies, the daft queans, that would lowp and dance a winter's nicht,
and still be lowping and dancing when the winter's day cam in. But there
would be folk there to hauld them company, and the lads to egg them on;
and this thing was its lee-lane. And there would be a fiddler diddling
his elbock in the chimney-side; and this thing had nae music but the
skirling of the solans. And the lassies were bits o' young things wi'
the reid life dinnling and stending in their members; and this was a
muckle, fat, creishy man, and him fa'n in the vale o' years. Say what ye
like, I maun say what I believe. It was joy was in the creature's heart;
the joy o' hell, I daursay: joy whatever. Mony a time I have askit
mysel', why witches and warlocks should sell their sauls (whilk are
their maist dear possessions) and be auld, duddy, wrunkl't wives, or
auld, feckless, doddered men; and then I mind upon Tod Lapraik dancing
a' thae hours by his lane in the black glory of his heart. Nae doubt
they burn for it in muckle hell, but they have a grand time here of it,
whatever!--and the Lord forgie us!

Weel, at the hinder end, we saw the wee flag yirk up to the mast-heid
upon the harbour rocks. That was a' Sandie waited for. He up wi' the
gun, took a deleeberate aim, an' pu'd the trigger. There cam a bang and
then ae waefu' skirl frae the Bass. And there were we, rubbin' our een
and lookin' at ither like daft folk. For wi' the bang and the skirl the
thing had clean disappeared. The sun glintit, the wund blew, and there
was the bare yerd whaur the Wonder had been lowping and flinging but ae
second syne.

The hale way hame I roared and grat wi' the terror of that dispensation.
The grawn folk were nane sae muckle better; there was little said in
Sandie's boat but just the name of God; and when we won in by the pier,
the harbour rocks were fair black wi' the folk waitin' us. It seems they
had fund Lapraik in an