Therefore, unless the woman came through one of the little window-places, which was almost incredible as they were high above the ground, or dropped from the smoke-hole in the roof, or had been shut into the place when the door was closed on the previous night, I could not see how she had arrived there.

And if any one of these incredible suppositions was correct, then how did she get out again with two men watching her?
There were only two solutions to the problem--namely, that the whole occurrence was hallucination, or that, in fact, Ragnall and Savage had seen something unnatural and uncanny.

If the latter were correct I only wished that I had shared the experience, as I have always longed to see a ghost.

A real, indisputable ghost would be a great support to our doubting minds, that is if we _knew_ its owner to be dead.
But--this was another thought--if by any chance Lady Ragnall were still alive and a prisoner upon that mountain, what they had seen was no ghost, but a shadow or _simulacrum_ of a living person projected consciously or unconsciously by that person for some unknown purpose.
What could the purpose be?
As it chanced the answer was not difficult, and to it the words she was reported to have uttered gave a cue.

Only a few hours ago, just before we turned in indeed, as I have said, we had been discussing matters.