For in the moment of terror, when the soul is unmanned, everyone hears
with his own ears and sees with his own eyes, according to his own
heart's fantasy.
But the figure came ever closer to us, stepping daintily and surely in
the dim light. Again I heard the voice which had spoken to me from the
sea, and at the sound my very bones quaked within me.
'Launcelot--Launcelot Kennedy!' it said.
And for a long moment the figure stood still as if waiting for an
answer. But my voice was shut dumbly within me. The Dominie stood up.
'Art thou the spirit of Mary Torrance, or a deceiving fiend of hell that
has taken her shape? Answer me, or I fire!'
And the Dominie held out his pistol to the white-sheeted ghost, which
even then appeared to me a mightily vain thing, for how can a spirit
fear these things which are only deadly to flesh and bone?
'I have come to see Launcelot Kennedy,' answered the voice, and it
appeared awful and terrible to me beyond the power of words. I could
not so much as fix my mind on a prayer, though I knew several well
enough. 'I have come to seek Launce Kennedy. Is he within?' said the
voice.
'What would you with him? He is no concern of yours,' said the Dominie.
'I ken that,' said the voice. 'Nevertheless, I have come to seek him.
I greet you well, Dominie Mure. Will you open and let Helen Kennedy
within?'
And with that the light came clearer. The veil of the fantasies of that
fearful night fell like a loosened bandage from my eyes. And lo! there
at the tower's foot was my dear quipsome lass, Nell Kennedy, in her own
proper body, and I knew her for good, sound flesh and blood. Nor could
I now tell how I had so deceived myself. But one thing I resolved--that
I should not reveal my terror to her, for very certainly she would laugh
at me!
But the Dominie was too firmly fixed in his thought. I saw him grip his
pistol and lean over the parapet. It seemed that he could not even
believe the seeing of his eyes.
'Come not nearer,' he cried in a wild voice, 'for well do I know that
you are a fiend of the breed of the sea demons, whatsoever you may
pretend. I will try a bullet of holy silver upon you.'
But I threw myself upon him and held his arm.
'It is but our own Nell Kennedy,' I said. 'What frights you, Dominie?'
For I resolved to make a virtue of my courage. And, indeed, as I came
to myself first, and had done no open foolishness, I thought I might as
well take all the credit which was due to me. 'See you not that it is
only Helen Kennedy of Culzean?' I repeated, reasoning with him.
'And what seeks she with you?' said he, still struggling in my grasp.
'I tell you it is a prodigy, and bodes us no good,' he persisted.
'That I cannot tell,' said I. 'I had thought her safe upon the moors
with my mother. But I will go down and open the door to her.'
So when I had run down the stairs of the small keep and set the bolt
wide, lo, there upon the step was Nell Kennedy, her face dimpled with
smiles, albeit somewhat pale also with the morning light and the
strangeness of her adventure.