Indeed, several legends were based on the story of certain "fire-maidens," who haunted the old castle.
The most superstitious declared they had seen these fantastic creatures with their own eyes.

Jack Ryan was naturally one of them.

It was a fact that from time to time long flames appeared, sometimes on a broken piece of wall, sometimes on the summit of the tower which was the highest point of Dundonald Castle.
Did these flames really assume a human shape, as was asserted?
Did they merit the name of fire-maidens, given them by the people of the coast?
It was evidently just an optical delusion, aided by a good deal of credulity, and science could easily have explained the phenomenon.
However that might be, these fire-maidens had the reputation of frequenting the ruins of the old castle and there performing wild strathspeys, especially on dark nights.

Jack Ryan, bold fellow though he was, would never have dared to accompany those dances with the music of his bagpipes.
"Old Nick is enough for them!" said he.

"He doesn't need me to complete his infernal orchestra." We may well believe that these strange apparitions frequently furnished a text for the evening stories.