; he tried to cross the swollen burn by the
stepping-stones, it seems, fell in, and was drowned. The faithful collie
had tried to save him, for he was found with him, his teeth fast in his
master's plaid.'

'I love that collie,' said my aunt; 'he ought to have had a headstone
with "Faithful unto Death" engraved on it.'

'So he should have had, my dear,' my uncle assented, 'had we been here
at the time. Well, Charles, the point is that several people have
thought----' Here my aunt moved a little impatiently in her chair. 'Have
been quite sure,' corrected my uncle, 'that they have seen the dog or
its wraith, but no one has yet seen the shepherd, I believe. Your aunt
last autumn saw the dog on the top of the wall that surrounds the
mausoleum, jumping up and down and growling dreadfully, and last night
our stableman--"Geordie"--a disabled pitman, was chivvied by him across
the park from close beside the mausoleum. What can you make of that?'
questioned my uncle, the humorous look again in his eye.

'Did Geordie run away?' I inquired magisterially.

'He ran,' replied my uncle, smiling, 'as he expressed it himself, "like
a whippet or a hunted hare."'

'Did you run, Aunt Mary?' I inquired next.

'I daren't, Charlie, to tell you the truth. If I had begun to run I
should have screamed, so I just walked on as fast as ever I could.'

'Then it didn't follow you?' I inquired.

'No,' said my aunt, shaking her head; 'it seemed to me like one of those
savage, tied-up mongrels that guard the carts of carriers in the town on
market days.'

'The curious thing,' interrupted my uncle, who was a keen antiquary, 'is
that the dog should haunt the mausoleum, since it contains not his
master, but "Hell-fire Dick," the last of the Norman Fitzalans--and so
named not only because he belonged to the famous club, but also, as I
gather from tradition, because of his language and complexion.

'Had he been alive no shepherd had dared trespass in his park, and no
dog would have come out alive. So it is curious they should forgather
after death.'

My aunt here interposed.

'Are you not afraid for your uncle's orthodoxy?' she asked of me, 'when
he shows himself so sceptical?'

My uncle, discovering that he had put himself at a disadvantage, now
suggested that I should--as a lawyer--investigate the matter and give my
opinion upon it.

'Willingly,' I replied, laughing. 'The chief witness, I take it, will be
your henchman, the redoubtable "G