used to it; it did not rouse all my pulses as it did at first. But just
as it threw itself sobbing at the door (I cannot use other words), there
suddenly came something which sent the blood coursing through my veins,
and my heart into my mouth. It was a voice inside the wall,--the
minister's well-known voice. I would have been prepared for it in any
kind of adjuration, but I was not prepared for what I heard. It came out
with a sort of stammering, as if too much moved for utterance. "Willie,
Willie! Oh, God preserve us! is it you?"

These simple words had an effect upon me that the voice of the
invisible creature had ceased to have. I thought the old man, whom I
had brought into this danger, had gone mad with terror. I made a dash
round to the other side of the wall, half crazed myself with the
thought. He was standing where I had left him, his shadow thrown vague
and large upon the grass by the lantern which stood at his feet. I
lifted my own light to see his face as I rushed forward. He was very
pale, his eyes wet and glistening, his mouth quivering with parted
lips. He neither saw nor heard me. We that had gone through this
experience before, had crouched towards each other to get a little
strength to bear it. But he was not even aware that I was there. His
whole being seemed absorbed in anxiety and tenderness. He held out his
hands, which trembled, but it seemed to me with eagerness, not fear. He
went on speaking all the time. "Willie, if it is you,--and it's you, if
it is not a delusion of Satan,--Willie, lad! why come ye here frighting
them that know you not? Why came ye not to me?"

He seemed to wait for an answer. When his voice ceased, his countenance,
every line moving, continued to speak. Simson gave me another terrible
shock, stealing into the open door-way with his light, as much
awe-stricken, as wildly curious, as I. But the minister resumed, without