on the
defenceless vegetables, and determined to seek a more copious source of
information.

Willy and Bell would be capable of second-hand descriptions only, so I
resolved to approach the fountain-head and interrogate Aleck in person.
I found the youth in the garden of Fanellan farm, evidently just passing
the time by a cursory pruning of berry bushes. He had on his Sunday
suit, and was unusually smartened up for a weekday; for it was but
natural that neighbors might be expected to drop in for information as to
the supernatural manifestations he had experienced, and it was well to be
prepared. He was a fresh-looking, fair-haired lad of eighteen or
thereabouts. I had often noticed him on Sundays among the gathering
under the pine-trees near the church door, but had never spoken to him.

Aleck had not expected so illustrious a visitor as "the priest's
brother," and, though evidently gratified by my interest, was so
painfully shy that it would have needed an expert barrister to draw out
any satisfactory information from so bashful a witness. Luckily his
mother had espied me from the window, and promptly appeared on the scene,
and by means of her judicious prompting the youth was induced to tell his
tale.

It appeared that Aleck was out on the night in question at the unusual
hour of twelve. He had been "bidden," as his mother explained, to a
marriage in the neighborhood, and his father had allowed him to accept
the invitation on the condition of his return home by midnight. As is
not unusual in such cases, the attractions of the dance had led the youth
to postpone his departure, minute by minute, until it was questionable
whether he could possibly reach home by the appointed time, even if he
ran his best. Consequently he took all the short cuts he knew, and one
of them led him by the old mill.

I was well aware, from an anecdote related to me by Penny, that John
Farquhar, the lad's father, was a stern disciplinarian. Elsie's elder
sister, Jean, a lass of nineteen, had once happened to return home from
confession rather later than usual one Saturday evening, owing to the
exceptionally large number awaiting their turn in the church. On
reaching home about half-past eight on a spring evening, she became aware
of her father standing in the dusk at the garden gate, holding an
ominously slender walking-stick in his hand. With this he proceeded to
deal several far from gentle strokes upon the girl's shoulders,
reg