oiled her victim of his rings, epaulets, buttons
and gold lacing, and, having placed them in her basket, proceeded
elsewhere. In some cases, unable to remove the rings easily, she
chopped off the fingers, and popped them, just as they were, into her
basket. Neither was her mode of dispatch always the same, for while
she put some men out of their misery in the manner I have described,
she cut the throats of others with as great a nonchalance as if she
had been killing fowls, whilst others again she settled with the
butt-ends of their guns or pistols. In all she murdered a full
half-score, and was decamping with her booty when her gloating eyes
suddenly encountered mine, and with a shrill scream of rage she rushed
towards me. I was an easy victim, for strain and pray how I would, I
could not move an inch. Raising her flashing blade high over her head,
an expression of fiendish glee in her staring eyes, she made ready to
strike me. This was the climax, my overstrained nerves could stand no
more, and ere the blow had time to descend, I pitched heavily forward
and fell at her feet. When I recovered, every phantom had vanished,
and the Pass glowed with all the cheerful freshness of the early
morning sun. Not a whit the worse for my venture, I cycled swiftly
home, and ate as only one can eat who has spent the night amid the
banks and braes of bonnie Scotland.

CASE VII

"PEARLIN' JEAN" OF ALLANBANK

Few ghosts have obtained more notoriety than "Pearlin' Jean," the
phantasm which for many years haunted Allanbank, a seat of the
Stuarts.

The popular theory as to the identity of the apparition is as
follows:--

Mr. Stuart, afterwards created first baronet of Allanbank, when on a
tour in France, met a young and beautiful French Sister of Charity of
the name of Jean, whom he induced to leave her convent. Tiring of her
at length, Mr. Stuart brutally left her, and, returning abruptly to
Scotland, became engaged to be married to a lady of his own
nationality and position in life. But Jean was determined he should
not escape her so easily. For him she had sacrificed everything: her
old vocation in life was gone, she had no home, no honour,--nothing,
so she resolved to leave no stone unturned to discover his
whereabouts. At last her perseverance was rewarded, and, Fortune
favouring her, she arrived without mishap at Allanbank.

The truth was then revealed to her: her cruel and faithless lover