He behoved, he judged, to be sick; an' sick he was--little he jaloosed the sickness.
At the hinder end, he got a clearness in his mind, sat up in his sark on the bed-side, and fell thinkin' ance mair o' the black man an' Janet.

He couldnae weel tell how--maybe it was the cauld to his feet--but it cam' in upon him wi' a spate that there was some connection between thir twa, an' that either or baith o' them were bogles.

And just at that moment, in Janet's room, which was neist to his, there cam' a stramp o' feet as if men were wars'lin', an' then a loud bang; an' then a wund gaed reishling round the fower quarters of the house; an' then a' was aince mair as seelent as the grave.
Mr.Soulis was feared for neither man nor deevil.

He got his tinder-box, an' lit a can'le, an' made three steps o't ower to Janet's door.

It was on the hasp, an' he pushed it open, an' keeked bauldly in.