hand; the girl, intently listening, was alone with her fear.
All was silent in the room, and the terror deepened. Then the far-off
sound in the house was heard once more.

"Mother--mother, what's that?"

"What is it, Janet?" came a feebly complaining voice; "what's wrong wi'
ye, lassie?"

Janet and her mother were sleeping in the big bedroom, Janet in the
place that had been her father's. He had been buried through the day,
the second day after his murder. Mrs. Gourlay had shown a feverish
anxiety to get the corpse out the house as soon as possible; and there
had been nothing to prevent it. "Oh," said Doctor Dandy to the gossips,
"it would have killed any man to fall from such a height on to the sharp
edge of yon fender. No; he was not quite dead when I got to him. He
opened his eyes on me, once--a terrible look--and then life went out of
him with a great quiver."

Ere Janet could answer her mother she was seized with a racking cough,
and her hoarse bark sounded hollow in the silence. At last she sat up
and gasped fearfully, "I thocht--I thocht I heard something moving!"

"It would be the wind," plained her mother; "it would just be the wind.
John's asleep this strucken hour and mair. I sat by his bed for a lang
while, and he prigged and prayed for a dose o' the whisky ere he won
away. He wouldna let go my hand till he slept, puir fallow. There's an
unco fear on him--an unco fear. But try and fa' owre," she soothed her
daughter. "That would just be the wind ye heard."

"There's nae wind!" said Janet.

The stair creaked. The two women clung to each other, gripping tight
fingers, and their hearts throbbed like big separate beings in their
breasts. There was a rustle, as of something coming; then the door
opened, and John flitted to the bedside with a candle in his hand. Above
his nightshirt his bloodless face looked gray.

"Mother," he panted, "there's something in my room!"

"What is it, John?" said his mother, in surprise and fear.

"I--I thocht it was himsell! O mother, I'm feared, I'm feared! O mother,
I'm _feared_!" He sang the words in a hysterical chant, his voice rising
at the end.

The door of the bedroom clicked. It was not a slamming sound, only the
door went to gently, as if some one closed it. John dropped the candle
from his shaking hand, and was left standing in the living darkness.

"_Save me!_" he screamed, and leaped into the bed, burrowing down
between the women till his head was covered b