I was always ceevil to any
person that was ceevil to me, an' never went farther than was becomin',
he made me the return o' talkin' to me at times, an' tellin' me what he
knew.

"The young gentleman was to stop an' lunch with the master, an' i' the
meantime would have a glass o' wine an' a biscuit; an' pullin' a bunch
o' keys from his pocket, he desired Mr. Harper to take a certain one
and go to the door that was locked inside the wine-cellar, and bring a
bottle from a certain bin. Harper took the key, an' was just goin' from
the room, when he h'ard the visitor--though in truth he was more at
hame there than any of us--h'ard him say, 'I'll tell you what you've
been doing, sir, and you'll tell me whether I'm not right!' Hearin'
that, the butler drew the door to, but not that close, and made no
haste to leave it, and so h'ard what followed.

"'I'll tell you what you've been doin',' says he. 'Didn't you find a
man's head--a skull, I mean, upon the premises?' 'Well, yes, I believe
we did, when I think of it!' says the master; 'for my butler'--an'
there was the butler outside a listenin' to the whole tale!--'my butler
came to me one mornin', sayin', "Look here, sir! that is what I found
in a little box, close by the door of the wine-cellar! It's a skull!"
"Oh," said I '--it was the master that was speakin'--'"it'll be some
medical student has brought it home to the house!" So he asked me what
he had better do with it.' 'And you told him,' interrupted the
gentleman, 'to bury it!' 'I did; it seemed the proper thing to do.' 'I
hadn't a doubt of it!' said the gentleman: 'that is the cause of all
the disturbance.' 'That?' says the master. 'That, and nothing else!'
answers the gentleman. And with that, as Harper confessed when he told
me, there cam ower him such a horror, that he daured nae longer stan'
at the door; but for goin' doon to the cellar to fetch the bottle o'
wine, that was merely beyond his human faculty. As it happed, I met him
on the stair, as white as a sheet, an' ready to drop. 'What's the
matter, Mr. Harper?' said I; and he told me all about it. 'Come along,'
I said; 'we'll go to the cellar together! It's broad daylight, an'
there's nothing to hurt us!' So he went down.

"'There, that's the box the thing was lyin' in!' said he, as we cam oot
o' the wine-cellar. An' wi' that cam a groan oot o' the varra ground at
oor feet! We both h'ard it, an' stood shakin' an' dumb, grippin' ane
anither. 'I'm sure I don't kno