"I heard a sound," I said, "a dreadful sound, but I saw no ghost."
"Sure an' 'twas himsel'," said my lowland Scotch girl, who now
perceived the joke; "he was a-seeken' to gie us puir bodies a wee
fricht."
"How long have you been subject to these sort of fits?" said I. "You
had better speak to the doctor about them. Such fancies, if they are
not attended to, often end in madness."
"Mad!" (very indignantly) "I guess I'm not mad, but as wide awake as
you are. Did I not see it with my own eyes? And then the noise - I
could not make such a tarnation outcry to save my life. But be it
man or devil, I don't care, I'm not afear'd," doubling his fist very
undecidedly at the hole. Again the ghastly head was protruded - the
dreadful eyes rolled wildly in their hollow sockets, and a yell more
appalling than the former rang through the room. The man sprang from
his chair, which he overturned in his fright, and stood for an
instant with his one-eyeball starting from his head, and glaring
upon the spectre; his cheeks deadly pale; the cold perspiration
streaming from his face; his lips dissevered, and his teeth
chattering in his head.
"There - there - there.
