opher became a living germ of unrest
in the fertilising soil of his disordered brain. Thus negatively and
positively all things began to work to a common end. Not the least of
his disturbing causes was Saft Tammie, who had now become at certain
times of the day a fixture at his gate. After a while, being
interested in the previous state of this individual, he made inquiries
regarding his past with the following result.

Saft Tammie was popularly believed to be the son of a laird in one of
the counties round the Firth of Forth. He had been partially educated
for the ministry, but for some cause which no one ever knew threw up
his prospects suddenly, and, going to Peterhead in its days of whaling
prosperity, had there taken service on a whaler. Here off and on he
had remained for some years, getting gradually more and more silent in
his habits, till finally his shipmates protested against so taciturn a
mate, and he had found service amongst the fishing smacks of the
northern fleet. He had worked for many years at the fishing with
always the reputation of being 'a wee bit daft,' till at length he had
gradually settled down at Crooken, where the laird, doubtless knowing
something of his family history, had given him a job which practically
made him a pensioner. The minister who gave the information finished
thus:--

'It is a very strange thing, but the man seems to have some odd kind
of gift. Whether it be that "second sight" which we Scotch people are
so prone to believe in, or some other occult form of knowledge, I know
not, but nothing of a disastrous tendency ever occurs in this place
but the men with whom he lives are able to quote after the event some
saying of his which certainly appears to have foretold it. He gets
uneasy or excited--wakes up, in fact--when death is in the air!'

This did not in any way tend to lessen Mr. Markam's concern, but on
the contrary seemed to impress the prophecy more deeply on his mind.
Of all the books which he had read on his new subject of study none
interested him so much as a German one _Die Doeppleganger_, by Dr.
Heinrich von Aschenberg, formerly of Bonn. Here he learned for the
first time of cases where men had led a double existence--each nature
being quite apart from the other--the body being always a reality with
one spirit, and a simulacrum with the other. Needless to say that Mr.
Markam realised this theory as exactly suiting his own case. The
glimpse which he had of his ow