o the moor above, across which he must now make his
way to find his companions.

'All at once he heard the sound of a crunching of bones--not as if a
creature was eating them, but as if they were ground by the teeth of
rage and disappointment: looking up, he saw close above him the mouth of
the little cavern in which he had taken refuge the day before. Summoning
all his resolution, he passed it slowly and softly. From within came the
sounds of a mingled moaning and growling.

'Having reached the top, he ran at full speed for some distance across
the moor before venturing to look behind him. When at length he did so
he saw, against the sky, the girl standing on the edge of the cliff,
wringing her hands. One solitary wail crossed the space between. She
made no attempt to follow him, and he reached the opposite shore in
safety.'

Mysie tried to laugh, but succeeded badly. Robert took his violin, and
its tones had soon swept all the fear from her face, leaving in its
stead a trouble that has no name--the trouble of wanting one knows not
what--or how to seek it.

It was now time to go home. Mysie gave each an equally warm good-night
and thanks, Mr. Lindsay accompanied them to the door, and the students
stepped into the moonlight. Across the links the sound of the sea came
with a swell.

As they went down the garden, Ericson stopped. Robert thought he was
looking back to the house, and went on. When Ericson joined him, he was
pale as death.

'What is the maitter wi' ye, Mr. Ericson?' he asked in terror.

'Look there!' said Ericson, pointing, not to the house, but to the sky.

Robert looked up. Close about the moon were a few white clouds. Upon
these white clouds, right over the moon, and near as the eyebrow to
an eye, hung part of an opalescent halo, bent into the rude, but
unavoidable suggestion of an eyebrow; while, close around the edge
of the moon, clung another, a pale storm-halo. To this pale iris and
faint-hued eyebrow the full moon itself formed the white pupil: the
whole was a perfect eye of ghastly death, staring out of the winter
heaven. The vision may never have been before, may never have been
again, but this Ericson and Robert saw that night.

CHAPTER XV. THE LAST OF THE COALS.

The next Sunday Robert went with Ericson to the episcopal chapel, and
for the first time in his life heard the epic music of the organ. It was
a new starting-point in his life. The worshipping instrument flooded
his so