“I don’t care if it’s midnight.  I’m going to show these to him, and tell him what’s happened here, and he may make what he can of it.”

“Then you have seen something?” said Miss Faithful, turning pale.

Miss Sophonisba made a sign of assent; “I’ll tell you all about it when we get there, but do come along now.  You’re work’s done, and I’ll take the bonnet with me and finish it there.”

They lived at some distance from the parsonage, and the roads were in even worse condition than they are now.  It was a tiresome walk, and Miss Faithful, clinging to her sister’s side, was almost inclined to wish they had braved the terrors at home rather than ventured out into the dark.  The clergyman was a middle-aged bachelor, a grandson of the Parson H——­ mentioned by Mrs. T——.  He heard Miss Sophonisba’s story in silence, but without any sign of dissent.  Faithful, in spite of her terror, could not but feel a mild degree of triumph in her sister’s evident conviction that what she had seen was, to say the least, unaccountable.

Mr. H——­ looked over the papers which had been found in the cupboard, and which Miss Sophonisba had brought with her.  “This is undoubtedly Doctor Haywood’s writing,” he said at last.  “I have a book purchased of him by my grandfather, and which has marginal notes in the same hand.”

“What shall we do, sir?” asked Miss Sophonisba.

“If I were you I should leave the house as soon as possible.  If there is anything in the air which induces such—­” Mr. H——­ hesitated for a word—­“sensations as these, it would be better to go.”

“Sensations!” said Miss Sophonisba, almost indignant.  “I tell you I saw it myself; and what made the wet spot on Faithful’s cape, and the rest?”

“I can’t undertake to say, Miss T——­; but if you like I will just come up to-morrow, and we will look into the matter a little.  My cousin, Lieutenant V——­, is here from his ship, and he will assist me.  And meantime you had best stay here to-night:  my sister will be very glad to see you.”

Miss H——­ was a particular friend of the sisters, but she could not but feel a little curious to know the object of their visit.  Miss Sophonisba would have kept the matter to herself, but Miss Faithful, in her excitement, could not but tell the story of their experiences.  Miss H——­, however, was a discreet woman, and kept the tale to herself.

The next evening the clergyman, his cousin the lieutenant and Miss Sophonisba went quietly about dusk to the old house.  They went down into the cellar, and the drag which the sailor had constructed brought up some bleached bones, and at the second cast a skeleton hand and a skull.  As the latter was disengaged from the drag something fell glittering from it upon the cellar floor:  two coins rolled to different corners.  Mr. H——­, picked them up.  One was a Spanish piece, the other an English half guinea.

“Miss T——­,” said the clergyman in a low tone, “I will see that these poor relics are laid in the burial-ground; and then—­really I think you had better leave the house.”