The Ghost of Guir House

PAUL.

Having left this dangling from the same thread, he went out for a

walk; and thinking it possible that he might meet Ah Ben in the

forest, went in that direction.

The leaves were now falling rapidly, and the clear sky was visible

through the bare limbs above; and the open spaces were beginning to

give the woods quite a wintry aspect. Guir House was visible from a

greater distance than he had ever seen it, and Paul sat down upon a

fallen log to take in the picture of the quaint old mansion, buried

in the depths of a trackless, almost impenetrable forest. He sang a

verse of a familiar song in a loud voice, with the hope of attracting

attention, but the distant echo of the last words was the only

response that he got. Then he threw himself upon the ground and

whistled and smoked alternately, his anxiety constantly growing; but

the gentle sighing of the wind in the tree tops, and the uncertain

rustling of the leaves, were but poor comfort. Was this to be the end

of his strange visit? Was he to start back upon his homeward journey

without an opportunity to bid his phenomenal hosts good-bye? He could

not bear the thought. Dorothy at all events must be found. He would

search the grounds and ransack the house. Surely she must be

somewhere within reach of his voice. But then she was so strange, so

different from any woman he had ever known. How could he tell,

perhaps she had left the old place forever! Henley had not realized

until now what a deep and overpowering dependence had suddenly

developed in him toward these people. They seemed to hold the key to

another world in a more practical and tangible way than he had ever

deemed it possible for any mortal-appearing man to do. Even to be

shut out from the wonderful city of Levachan would be an overwhelming

loss, and how could he ever hope to see it again without their aid?

To be deprived forever of the spiritual influence of these eccentric,

half-earthly acquaintances was a thought he could not tolerate. Even

the horrors through which they had passed appeared trivial as

compared with the glimpses they had afforded him of happiness. But to

see these things--to feel the mystery of their power and beauty just

beginning to descend and take possession of him--and then to be

snatched back to earth, with the inability to return, was too

horrible, and like the ecstatic visions of a drowning man cut short

by rescue. While he had Ah Ben and Dorothy within his reach, he felt

the possibility of return; but suddenly they had gone, and for the

first time he realized what they had been to him. Then it began to

dawn upon him what these people must have suffered in a century and a

half, and what they must continue to endure for untold time to come,

in their inability to return in full to that world they had left, or

even to take part in the affairs of this. Surely their case was far

worse than his, for after a few years he would be freed from the

bondage of matter, and would grapple with the mysteries which had

become so fascinating; but with them it was different. Unfitted for

either world, without a friend and alone, they must drag out their

weary existence until the law of Karma was satisfied. But he would

not give them up; he could not; for were they not the new life, the

new atmosphere, the very essence of his newly discovered self? He had

felt, and seen, how possible it was for a man to tread on air--to

walk the upper regions of the sky, and he could never again be

contented to crawl upon the surface of the ground like a worm. But

without Ah Ben he must crawl. With him, Paul felt that all things

were possible, which powers he felt that Dorothy also possessed;

though, alas, through the crime, and earth-bound cravings of his

host, these powers had been sadly curtailed.