"Jarge," said he, "I'm thinkin' ye'd better tak' Job back to
strike for ye again if you'm goin' to mend t' owd screen."
"What d'ye mean?" growled Black George.
"Because," continued the old man, gathering a pinch of snuff with
great deliberation, "because, Jarge, the young feller as beat ye
at the throwin'--'im as was to 'ave worked for ye at 'is own
price--be dead."
"What!" cried Black George, starting.
"Dead!" nodded the old man, "a corp' 'e be--eh! such a fine,
promisin' young chap, an' now--a corp'." Here the Ancient nodded
solemnly again, three times, and inhaled his pinch of snuff with
great apparent zest and enjoyment.
"Why--" began the amazed George, "what--" and broke off to stare,
open-mouthed.
"Last night, as ever was," continued the old man, "'e went down
to th' 'aunted cottage--'t weren't no manner o' use tryin' to
turn 'im, no, not if I'd gone down to 'im on my marrer-bones--'e
were that set on it; so off he goes, 'bout sundown, to sleep in
th' 'aunted cottage--I knows, Jarge, 'cause I follered un, an'
seen for myself; so now I'm a-goin' down to find 'is corp'--"
He had reached thus far, when his eye, accustomed to the shadows,
chancing to meet mine, he uttered a gasp, and stood staring at me
with dropped jaw.
"Peter!" he stammered at last. "Peter--be that you, Peter?"
"To be sure it is," said I.
"Bean't ye--dead, then?"
"I never felt more full of life."
"But ye slep' in th' 'aunted cottage last night."
"Yes."
"But--but--the ghost, Peter?"
"Is a wandering Scotsman."
"Why then I can't go down and find ye corp' arter all?"
"I fear not, Ancient."
The old man slowly closed his snuff-box, shaking his head as he
did so.
"Ah, well! I won't blame ye, Peter," said he magnanunously, "it
bean't your fault, lad, no--but what's come to the ghost!"
"The ghost," I answered, "is nothing more dreadful than a
wandering Scotsman!"
"Scotsman!" exclaimed the Ancient sharply. "Scotsman!"
"Yes, Ancient."
"You'm mazed, Peter--ah! mazed ye be! What, aren't I heerd un
moanin' an' groanin' to 'isself--ah! an' twitterin' to?"
"As to that," said I, "those shrieks and howls he made with his
bagpipe, very easy for a skilled player such as he."