w what in the name o' heaven it can all
mean!' said he--but that was when we were on the way up again. 'Did ye
show 't ony disrespec'?' said I. 'No,' said he; 'I but buried it, as I
would anything else that had to be putten out o' sight,' An' as we wur
talkin' together--that was at the top o' the cellar-stair--there cam a
great ringin' at the bell, an' said he, 'They're won'erin' what's come
o' me an' their wine, an' weel they may! I maun rin.' As soon as he
entered the room--an' this again, ye may see, my leddy an' maister
Grant, he tellt me efterwards--'Whaur did ye bury the heid ye tuik frae
the cellar?' said his master til him, an' speiredna a word as to hoo he
had been sae lang gane for the wine. 'I buried it i' the garden,'
answered he. 'I hope you know the spot!' said the strange gentleman.
'Yes, sir, I do,' said Harper. 'Then come and show me,' said he.

"So the three of them went oot thegither, an' got a spade; an' luckily
the butler was able to show them at once the varra spot. An' the
gentleman he howkit up the skull wi' his ain han's, carefu' not to
touch it with the spade, an' broucht it back in his han' to the hoose,
knockin' the earth aff it with his rouch traivellin' gluves. But whan
Harper lookit to be told to take it back to the place where he found
it, an' trembled at the thoucht, wonderin' hoo he was to get haud o' me
an' naebody the wiser, for he didna want to show fricht i' the
day-time, to his grit surprise an' no sma' pleesur, the gentleman set
the skull on the chimley-piece. An' as lunch had been laid i' the
meantime, for Mr. Heywood--I hae jist gotten a grup o' his name--had to
be awa' again direckly, he h'ard the whole story as he waitit upo'
them. I suppose they thoucht it better he should hear an' tell the
rest, the sooner to gar them forget the terrors we had come throuw.

"Said the gentleman, 'Now you'll have no more trouble. If you do, write
to me, to the care o'--so an' so--an' I'll release you from your
agreement. But please to remember that you brought it on yourself by
interfering, I can't exackly say with my property, but with the
property of one who knows how to defend it without calling in the aid
of the law--which indeed would probably give him little
satisfaction.--It was the burying of that skull that brought on you all
the annoyance.' 'I always thought,' said the master, 'the dead
preferred having their bones buried. Their ghosts indeed, according to
Cocker, either wouldna or