afraid; it's only an old ghost. They swarm here."

"I don't believe it," said Max quietly.

"Well, will you believe this?--there are two steps gone, and there's a
big hole just below me. Give me your hand, or you'll go through."

Max made no reply, but went cautiously on till he could feel that he had
reached the dangerous place, and stopped.

"Now then, give me your hand, and reach up with one leg quite high.
That's the way."

Kenneth felt that the soft hand he took was cold and damp.

"Got your foot up? Ready?"

"Yes."

"There now, spring."

There was a bit of a scuffle, and Max stood beside his young host.

"That's the way. It's worse going down, but you'll soon get used to it.
Why, Scood and I run up and down here."

Max made no answer, but cautiously followed his leader, growing more and
more nervous as he climbed, for his unaccustomed feet kept slipping, and
in several places the stones were so worn and broken away that it really
would have been perilous in broad daylight, while in the semi-obscurity,
and at times darkness, there were spots that, had he seen them, the lad
would have declined to pass.

"Here we are," said Kenneth, in a whisper, as the light now shone down
upon them. "Be quiet. I don't suppose he heard us come up."

Max obeyed, and followed his guide up a few more steps, to where they
turned suddenly to left as well as right--the latter leading to the
ruined battlements of the corner tower, the former into an old chamber,
partly covered in by the groined roof, and lit by a couple of loopholes
from the outside, and by a broken window opening on to the old
quadrangle.

The floor was of stone, and so broken away in places that it was
possible to gaze down to the basement of the tower, the lower floors
being gone; and here, busy at work, in the half roofless place, with the
furniture consisting of a short plank laid across a couple of stones
beneath the window, and an old three-legged stool in the crumbling,
arched hollow of what had been the fireplace, sat a wild-looking old
man. The top of his head was shiny and bald, but from all round
streamed down his long thin silvery locks, and, as he raised his head
for a moment to pick up something from the floor, Max could see that his
face was half hidden by his long white beard, which flew out in silvery
strands from time to time, as a puff of wind came from the unglazed
window.

He too was in jacket and kilt, beneath which his lon