ry placidly, she has declined in health and strength, until it is
evident that in a very few weeks at the most she will have rejoined her
husband and restored to him the one thing which he must have grudged to
leave behind.

The Laird of Branksome came home from Italy restored in health, with the
result that we were compelled to return once more to Edinburgh.

The change was agreeable to us, for recent events had cast a cloud over
our country life and had surrounded us with unpleasant associations.
Besides, a highly honourable and remunerative appointment in connection
with the University library had become vacant, and had, through the
kindness of the late Sir Alexander Grant, been offered to my father,
who, as may be imagined, lost no time in accepting so congenial a post.

In this way we came back to Edinburgh very much more important people
than we left it, and with no further reason to be uneasy about the
details of housekeeping. But, in truth, the whole household has been
dissolved, for I have been married for some months to my dear Gabriel,
and Esther is to become Mrs. Heatherstone upon the 23rd of the month. If
she makes him as good a wife as his sister has made me, we may both set
ourselves down as fortunate men.

These mere domestic episodes are, as I have already explained,
introduced only because I cannot avoid alluding to them.

My object in drawing up this statement and publishing the evidence which
corroborates it, was certainly not to parade my private affairs before
the public, but to leave on record an authentic narrative of a most
remarkable series of events. This I have endeavoured to do in as
methodical a manner as possible, exaggerating nothing and suppressing
nothing.

The reader has now the evidence before him, and can form his own
opinions unaided by me as to the causes of the disappearance and death
of Rufus Smith and of John Berthier Heatherstone, V.C., C.B.

There is only one point which is still dark to me. Why the _chelas_ of
Ghoolab Shah should have removed their victims to the desolate Hole of
Cree instead of taking their lives at Cloomber, is, I confess, a mystery
to me.

In dealing with occult laws, however, we must allow for our own complete
ignorance of the subject. Did we know more we might see that there was
some analogy between that foul bog and the sacrilege which had been
committed, and that their ritual and customs demanded that just such a
death was the one appropriate