'Yes, Samuel,' replied an answering voice, and a second shadow became dimly visible on the threshold. 'The woman will attend to your earthly concerns,' said Waiting Samuel.--'Roxana, take them hence.' The second shadow came forward, and, without a word, took our hands and led us along the dark passage like two children, warning us now of a step, now of a turn, then of two steps, and finally opening a door and ushering us into a fire-lighted room. Peat was burning upon the wide hearth, and a singing kettle hung above it on a crane; the red glow shone on a rough table, chairs cushioned in bright calico, a loud ticking clock, a few gayly flowered plates and cups on a shelf, shining tins against the plastered wall, and a cat dozing on a bit of carpet in one corner. The cheery domestic scene, coming after the wide, dusky Flats, the silence, the darkness, and the mystical words of the shadowy Samuel, seemed so real and pleasant that my heart grew light within me. 'What a bright fire!' I said. 'This is your domain, I suppose, Mrs.--Mrs.--' 'I am not Mrs.; I am called Roxana,' replied the woman, busying herself at the hearth. 'Ah, you are then the sister of Waiting Samuel, I presume?' 'No, I am his wife, fast enough; we were married by the minister twenty years ago. But that was before Samuel had seen any visions.' 'Does he see visions?' 'Yes, almost every day.' 'Do you see them, also?' 'O no; I'm not like Samuel. He has great gifts, Samuel has! The visions told us to come here; we used to live away down in Maine.' 'Indeed! That was a long journey!' 'Yes! And we didn't come straight either. We'd get to one place and stop, and I'd think we were going to stay, and just get things comfortable, when Samuel would see another vision, and we'd have to start on. We wandered in that way two or three years, but at last we got here, and something in the Flats seemed to suit the spirits, and they let us stay.' At this moment, through the half-open door, came a voice. 'An evil beast is in this house. Let him depart.' 'Do you mean me?' said Raymond, who had made himself comfortable in a rocking-chair. 'Nay; I refer to the four-legged beast,' continued the voice. 'Come forth, Apollyon!' Poor Captain Kidd seemed to feel that he was the person in question, for he hastened under the table with drooping tail and mortified aspect. 'Roxana, send forth the beast,' said the voice. The woman put down her dishes and went toward the table; but I interposed. 'If he must go, I will take him,' I said, rising. 'Yes; he must go,' replied Roxana, holding open the door. So I ordered out the unwilling Captain, and led him into the passageway. 'Out of the house, out of the house,' said Waiting Samuel. 'His feet may not rest upon this sacred ground. I must take him hence in the boat.' 'But where?' 'Across the channel there is an islet large enough for him; he shall have food and shelter, but here he cannot abide,' said the man, leading the way down to the boat.