He might else have been charged for a warlock.

The shades of evening were growing thicker around us as my conductor finished his long narrative with this moral— " Ye see, birkie, it is nae chancy thing to tak a stranger traveller for a guide, when you are in an uncouth land."

" I should not have made that inference," said I. " Your grandfather's adventure was fortune for himself whom it saved from ruin and distress; and fortunate for his landlord also, whom it prevented from committing a gross act of injustice."

" Aye, but they had baith to sup the sauce o't sooner or later," said "Wandering Willie—" what was fristed wasna forgiven. Sir John died before he was much over threescore; and it was just like of a moment's illness. And for my gudesire, though he departed in fullness of life, yet there was my father, a yauld man of forty-five, fell down betwixt the stilts of his pleugh, and rase never again, and left nae bairn but me, a puir sightless, fatherless, motherless creature, could neither work nor want. Things gaed wee) aneugh at first; for Sir Redwald Redgauntlet, the only son of

WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE 63

Sir John, and the oye of auld Sir Robert, and, waes me! the last of the honourable house, took the farm aff our hands, and brought me into his household to have care of me. He liked music, and I had the best teachers baith England and Scotland could gie me. Mony a merry year was I wi' him; but waes me! he gaed out with other pretty men in the Forty-five—I'll say nae mair about it—My head never settled weel since I lost him; and if I say another word about it, deil a bar will I have the heart to play the night.—Look out, my gentle chap," he resumed in a different tone, " ye should see the lights at Brokenburn Glen by this time."

DRACULA'S GUEST

BRAM STOKER

WHEN we started for our drive the sun was shining brightly on Munich, and the air was full of the joyous-ness of early summer. Just as we were about to depart, Herr Delbriick (the maitre d'hotel of the Quatre Saisons, where I was staying) came down, bareheaded, to the carriage and, after wishing m.e a pleasant drive, said to the coachman, still holding his hand on the handle of the carriage door :

"Remember you are back by nightfall. The sky looks bright, but there is a shiver in the north wind that says there may be a sudden storm. But I am sure you will not be late." Here he smiled, and added, "For you know what night it is."

Johann answered with an emphatic, "Ja, mein Herr," and, touching his hat, drove off quickly. When we had cleared the town, I said, after signalling to him to stop :

"Tell me, Johann, what is tonight ?"

He crossed himself, as he answered laconically : "Wal-purgis nacht." Then he took out his watch, a great, old-fashioned German-silver thing as big as a turnip, and looked at it, with his eyebrows gathered together and a little impatient shrug of his shoulders. I realized that this was his way of respectfully protesting against the unnecessary delay, and sank back in the carriage, merely motioning him to proceed. He started off rapidly, as if to make up for lost time. Every now and then the horses seemed to throw up their heads and sniffed the air suspiciously. On such occasions I often looked round in alarm. The road was pretty bleak, for we were traversing a sort of high, wind-swept plateau. As we drove, I saw a road that looked but little used, and which seemed to dip through a little winding valley. It looked so inviting that, even at the risk of offending him, I called Johann to stop. And when he had pulled up I told him I would like to drive down that road. He made all sorts of excuses, and frequently crossed himself as he spoke. This somewhat

DRACULA'S GUEST 65

piqued my curiosity, so I asked liim various questions. He answered fencingly, and repeatedly looked at his watch in protest. Finally I said :

"Well, Johann, I want to go down this road. I sliall not ask you to come unless you like ; but tell me why you do not like to go, that is all I ask." For answer he seemed to throw himself off the box, so quickly did he reach the ground. Then he stretched out his hands appealingly to me, and implored me not to go. There was just enough of English mixed with the German for me to understand the drift of his talk. He seemed always just about to tell me something—the very idea of which evidently frightened liim ; but each time he pulled himself up, saying, as he crossed himself: "Walpurgis nacht!"

I tried to argue with him, but it was difficult to argue with a man when I did not know his language. The advantage certainly rested with him, for although he began to speak in English—of a very crude and broken kind—he always got excited and broke into his native tongue—and every time he did so he looked at his watch. Then the horses became restless and sniffed the air. At this he grew very pale, and, looking around in a frightened way, he suddenly jumped forward, took them by the bridles and led them on some twenty feet, I followed, and asked why he had done this.