Page:St Andrews Ghost Stories (1921).djvu/58

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50
The Spectre of the Castle.

of Skye, was a wonderful visionary."

Now, Anklebone was an interesting old fellow, but he had a tiresome habit of wandering away from his theme, and, as it were, getting off the main road into a labyrinth of bye-ways, and one had, metaphorically, to push him out of these side lanes and place him on his feet again in the main road.

"Before I come to St Andrews Castle," he said, "I must tell you about a queer episode of an astral body at Lausdree, a disentangled personality, as it were."

"Push along," I said, "and tell me."

"Well, one afternoon after luncheon the master and I were in the dining hall, when we saw a gentleman crossing the lawn towards the castle. He was a tall man in a riding dress, with curly hair and a large flowing moustache. He came up to the window and looked in earnestly at us, and then walked along the gravel-walk round to the castle door. 'Hullo!' said the master, 'that is my old friend, Jack Herbert, to whom I have let Lausdree for this summer. What on earth can bring him here? I'll go to the door myself and let him in. He never said he was coming.'

"In a minute or two the master came back looking bewildered. 'Anklebone,' he said, 'that's a very queer thing; there is nobody there!' 'Perhaps,' I suggested, 'the gentleman has gone round to the stables'; so we both hurried off to look, but not a sign of anyone could be seen, and we stared blankly at each other. We could not make it out. Two days after, the master got a letter from Mr Jack Herbert telling him he had had a bad fall off his horse, had injured his spine, and was confined to bed.

"Mr Herbert went on to say that two days before, while he was asleep, he dreamt vividly that he was at Lausdree; that he crossed the lawn to the window of the dining hall, and, looking in, saw my master and the butler (that's me) in the room. He was going round to the front door when he awoke. Now that was his astral body that Master and I saw. He loved Lausdree, and during sleep he came and paid us that visit. Queer, isn't it? Ten days after, he died. He wanted to see the old castle before he died, and his force of will power brought his