I had been dreaming somewhat after this fashion on the roof of the house to-night, for how long or how short a time I should have been quite unable to say, when I was startled from my reverie by hearing a most piercing scream in Janie’s voice and proceeding from Janie’s bedroom, which sounded so shrill and alarming, as it rung through the still night air, that, though I rose at once to my feet, I felt for the first moment so paralysed with fear, that it was not until the cry had been repeated that I ran down to her assistance. I found her in a half-fainting state on the sill of the bedroom window, which was wide open; but my appearance changed her condition to one of hysterical weeping, which, whilst it was more painful to witness, greatly relieved her. Meanwhile the native servants, lying about the verandah on their mats, were slumbering as heavily as is their nature, and would not have awakened of themselves had the cry been twice as piercing, the alarm twice as great. ‘My darling!’ I exclaimed, as I took the shivering form of my wife (shivering with fear, not cold) into my arms and pressed it to me, ‘what can have startled you? Have you been dreaming?’ ‘Dreaming!’ she repeated in a faint whisper. ‘Oh no, Robert, I was not dreaming; I was wide awake, and it passed close to me.’ ‘_It_—_it_—what do you mean, Janie?’ though I had guessed at once her fancy. ‘The ghost, Robert!—the dreadful ghost! Ah’ (with another convulsive shudder), ‘I shall never, never forget the sight!’ ‘_The ghost!_ my dear girl, you have really been dreaming. Where do you fancy you saw it?—in this room?’ for I had entered the room by the window by this time, and still sat on the sill supporting my wife in my arms. ‘I did not _fancy_,’ she replied, with an earnestness which proved that she thought she was right; ‘it passed so close to me, Robert, that I could have touched it with my finger. Ah, why did we ever come to this fearful place!’ I lifted her up and placed her on her bed again, and then, without releasing my hold of her trembling fingers, I sat down beside her and entreated her to tell me all. ‘Let me hear how you saw the ghost, and where, Janie; and perhaps I may be able to account for the apparent mystery. And first, why did you leave your bed at all? What waked you? You were so fast asleep when I left you.’ ‘I don’t know what waked me,’ she said nervously; ‘perhaps the heat, for I felt so restless that I could not sleep, and after a good deal of tossing about, I got up and walked to the window to cool myself, and see if you were in the compound anywhere. I was not thinking of the ghost, Robert, indeed I was not; but directly I reached the window I saw it—ah, just as they told me, wandering about the graves!’ ‘Janie dear, indeed you must be mistaken; it was the moonlight shining on the white lining of the silver bamboos, or—’