solved to go out by night to the empty
Manse, and secretly to set it in flames. It stood alone. The country
people slept sound at night. I calculated that if I chose midnight for
my act none would see the flames, and, ere the peasants woke at dawn,
the Manse and the spectre within it would be destroyed for ever. Such
was my belief--such the spirit in which I prepared myself for this
strange work.

V

THE RETURN OF THE GREY TRAVELLER

I write these last words after the dead of night, towards the coming of
the dawn. Ere the light is grey in the sky I shall be away to the burn
to meet him, the grey traveller. He is there waiting for me. He has come
back. I go to meet him, and I shall never return. Carlounie will know my
face no more. All is done as he ordained. My words have been as deeds,
have marched on inevitably to actual deeds. Long ago he said that
sometimes, even as we can never go back from things that we have done,
we can never go back from things that we have said. So, indeed, it is.

According to my fixed intention, I determined on a night for the
destruction of the Manse. The house was old and would burn like tinder.
I should break into it through the window of the study, which was never
shuttered. I should set fire to the interior at several points, and
escape in the darkness of the night. By dawn the accursed place would be
a ruin, and then--then I looked for a new era. Fool! Fool! I looked to
see the burden of the vile influence of the spectre lifted from the soul
of Fraser, and so from the soul of Kate, which was infected by him. I
looked to see my people sane and satisfied as of old, Carlounie no more
a plague-spot in the land, that poor and zealous man, the minister, calm
and at rest with his little faithful flock once more. All this I looked
for confidently. And so, when the black and starless night of my deed
came, I was happy and serene. That night Kate pleaded a headache, and
went to bed very early, before nine. She begged me not to come to her
room to bid her good-night, as she wanted perfect quiet and sleep. All
unsuspecting, I agreed to her request. Soon after she had gone, Fraser,
who had seemed heavy with unusual fatigue all through the evening, also
went off to bed, and I was left alone. But it was not yet time for me to
start on my errand of the darkness. The burning Manse would surely
attract attention before midnight. People might be out and about in the
village. A belated peasant might