nd of wooden floor.
This we quickly cleared, and found it covered a space about four feet by
three. As we lifted the first piece with great expectancy, we found it
was oak, about two inches thick, and very little the worse for its long
burial, as the surrounding soil was dry.

We looked into the narrow aperture left by the taking out of the oaken
plank, but could see nothing, as the depth of our pit made it somewhat
dark at the bottom, so I knelt down, and thrust my hand through the
opening and felt about. Presently I felt something hard, like a bundle
of sticks, and with a tug drew them through the opening, only to drop
them the next minute with a cry of horror, for it was a skeleton's hand
that came to view in my grasp.

We looked at each other in dismay, as if to say,

"How awful! what shall we do now?"

Then we paused, and looked at each other again, till I broke out with,

"There, Alec, your prophecy has come true, I _have_ 'shaken hands with a
shadow,' or what is very near it--a skeleton. What shall we do next?"

"Had we not better take up the flooring and see if we have come simply
upon a grave or what else is beneath us?"

To this I acquiesced. The hole we had dug was about six feet square, to
enable both of us to work in it at once; so in this pit or chamber we
had plenty of room, and as I have already said, the oak floor we came
upon was only four feet by three feet, so that we could stand at the
side of the flooring as we removed it piece by piece.

At last we had taken up the nine narrow pieces of oak which formed the
floor, and there before us lay the entire skeleton of a man, some
remnants of the clothes still covering parts of the frame, and a few
locks of yellow hair still adhering to the cranium.

The skeleton was lying face downward, and neither of us liked to turn it
over to see if anything could be gathered from an inspection of the
front of it, or to ascertain if anything were hidden beneath it; so we
both knelt down, and bodily lifted the light but hideous occupant of
this awful pit, and placed it in a sitting posture in one corner. As we
did so, first a foot and then a leg dropped off at the knee joint, and
fell back into the hole, which sent an indescribable thrill of horror
through me, and no doubt it acted upon Alec in the same manner.

When we came to look at the awful thing, Alec noticed something glitter
at its breast, and reaching forth his hand, attempted to take it to see
what