be lurking in the old house,
to rise up some day as a witness against us! I intend either to pull it
down or set fire to it. But we'll make sure of the will first."

"A rambling jackanapes of a nephew!" said Gilbert; "I hoped the fishes
had supped on him before now. We never thought, master, he could be
alive, as he sent no word about his being either alive or dead. But I
guess," continued this amiable servant, "he might ha' staid longer, and
you wouldn't ha' fretted for his company."

Listeners hear no good of themselves; but I determined to reward the old
villain very shortly for his good wishes.

"Gilbert, when there's work to do thou art always readier with thy
tongue than with thy fingers. Look! the match has gone out twice,--leave
off puffing and fetch the box; I'll manage about the candle."

I began to feel a strange sensation rambling about me. Gilbert left the
room, however, and I applied myself with redoubled diligence to the
crevice. My dishonest relation proceeded to revive the expiring sparks;
the light shone full upon his hard features. It might be fancy, but
guilt--broad, legible, remorseless guilt--seemed to mark every
inflection of his visage: his brow contracted,--his eye turned
cautiously and fearfully round the apartment, and more than once it
rested upon the gap I had made. I saw him strike his hand upon his
puckered brow, and a stifled groan escaped him; but as if ashamed of his
better feelings, he clenched it in an attitude of defiance, and listened
eagerly for the return of his servant. The slow footsteps of Gilbert
soon announced his approach, and apparently with some heavy burden. He
threw it on the floor, and I heard a key applied and the rusty wards
answering to the touch. The business in which they were now engaged was
out of my limited sphere of vision.

"I think, master, the damps will soon ding down the old house: look at
the wall; the paper hangs for all the world like the clerk's wig--ha,
ha! If we should burn the house down we'd rid it o' the ghosts. Would
they stand fire, think you, or be off to cooler quarters?"

"Hush, Gilbert; thou art wicked enough to bring a whole legion about us,
if any of them are within hearing. I always seemed to treat these
stories with contempt, but I never could satisfy myself about the noises
that old Gidlow and his wife heard. Thou knowest he was driven out of
the house by them. People wondered that I did not come and live here,
instead of letting