way to me from the direction of the door. Another moment and it would
reach my shoes. In my dismay I shrieked aloud. There was a sudden stir
without, a significant clatter of steel, and the next moment--despite
the fact that it was locked--the door slowly opened. The limits of my
endurance had now happily been reached, the over-taxed valves of my
heart could stand no more--I fainted. On my awakening to consciousness
it was morning, and the welcome sun rays revealed no evidences of the
distressing drama. I own I had a hard tussle before I could make up my
mind to spend another night in that room; and my feelings as I shut
the door on my retreating maid, and prepared to get into bed, were not
the most enviable. But nothing happened, nor did I again experience
anything of the sort till the evening before I left. I had lain down
all the afternoon--for I was tired after a long morning's tramp on the
moors, a thing I dearly love--and I was thinking it was about time to
get up, when a dark shadow suddenly fell across my face.
I looked up hastily, and there, standing by my bedside and bending
over me, was a gigantic figure in bright armour.
Its visor was up, and what I saw within the casque is stamped for ever
on my memory. It was the face of the dead--the long since dead--with
the expression--the subtly hellish expression--of the living. As I
gazed helplessly at it, it bent lower. I threw up my hands to ward it
off. There was a loud rap at the door. And as my maid softly entered
to tell me tea was ready--it vanished.
* * * * *
The third account of the Glamis hauntings was told me as long ago as
the summer of 1893. I was travelling by rail from Perth to Glasgow,
and the only other occupant of my compartment was an elderly
gentleman, who, from his general air and appearance, might have been
a dominie, or member of some other learned profession. I can see him
in my mind's eye now--a tall, thin man with a premature stoop. He had
white hair, which was brushed forward on either side of his head in
such a manner as suggested a wig; bushy eyebrows; dark, piercing eyes;
and a stern, though somewhat sad, mouth. His features were fine and
scholarly; he was clean-shaven. There was something about
him--something that marked him from the general horde--something that
attracted me, and I began chatting with him soon after we left Perth.
In the course of a conversation, that was at all events interest
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