leading from the
lane to his own porch, he met Noman, apparently departing. The beggar,
seeing his approach, assumed his usual stiff and inflexible attitude,
pausing ere he passed. A vague surmise, for which he could not
account, prompted the suspicions of Nicholas Haworth towards this
unimportant personage.

"What is thy business to-day abroad?" he inquired hastily.

"A word in thine ear, master," said the beggar.

"Say on, then; and grant that it may have an inkling of my sister!"

"She hath departed."

"That I know. But whither?"

"Ask the little devilkins I saw yesternight. I have told ye oft o' the
sights and terrible things that have visited me i' the boggart
chamber, and that the ghost begged hard for a victim."

"What! thou dost not surely suppose he hath borne away my sister?"

"I have said it!" replied the mendicant, with an air of mystery.

"We'll have the place exorcised, and the spirit laid; and thou"--said
Nicholas, pausing--"have a care that we hale thee not before the
justice for practising with forbidden and devilish devices."

"I cry thee mercy, Master Haworth; but for what good deed am I to
suffer? I have brought luck to thine house hitherto, and what mischief
yon ghost hath wrought is none o' my doing. If thou wilt, I can rid
thee of his presence, and that speedily, even if 'twere Beelzebub
himself."

"But will thy conjurations bring back my sister?" said the wondering,
yet half-credulous squire.

"That is more than I can tell. But, to prove that I am not in league
with thine enemy, I will cast him out."

"Hath Alice been strangled, or in anywise hurt, by this wicked
spirit?"

"Nay," said the beggar solemnly, "I guess not; but I heard him pass
by, and the chains did rattle fearfully through mine ears, until I
heard them at her bed-chamber. He may have spirited her away to
fairy-land for aught I know; and yet she lives!"

"Save us, merciful Disposer of our lot!" said Nicholas, much moved to
sorrow at this strange recital, yet in somewise comforted by the
assurance it contained. "We are none of us safe from his visitations,
now they are extended hitherto. I dreamt not of danger beforetime,
though I have heard sounds, and seen unaccountable things; yet I
imagined that in the old chamber only he had power to work mischief;
and, even there, I did disbelieve much of thy story, as it respected
his freaks and the nature and manner of his visits. The rumblings that
I fancied at times in th