"No, Giles, no!" said the superior intelligence, blinded by prejudice. "See you not this is glamour? This rope is a line the evil one casts out to wile thee to destruction. He knows the weaknesses of all our hearts; he has seen how fond you are of going up things. Where should our Gerard procure a rope? how fasten it in the sky like this? It is not in nature. Holy saints protect us this night, for hell is abroad." "Stuff!" said the dwarf: "the way to hell is down, and this rope leads up. I never had the luck to go up such a long rope. It may be years ere I fall in with such a long rope all ready hung for me. As well be knocked on the head at once as never know happiness." And he sprung on to the rope with a cry of delight, as a cat jumps with a mew on to a table where fish is. All the gymnast was on fire; and the only concession Kate could gain from him was permission to fasten the lantern on his neck first. "A light scares the ill spirits," said she. And so, with his huge arms and his legs like feathers, Giles went up the rope faster than his brother came down it. The light at the nape of his neck made a glowworm of him. His sister watched his progress with trembling anxiety. Suddenly a female figure started out of the solid masonry, and came flying at her with more than mortal velocity. Kate uttered a feeble cry. It was all she could, for her tongue clove to her palate with terror. Then she dropped her crutches, and sank upon her knees, hiding her face and moaning: "Take my body, but spare my soul!" _Margaret_ (panting). "Why it is a woman." _Kate_ (quivering). "Why it is a woman." _Margaret._ "How you scared me." _Kate._ "I am scared enough myself. Oh! oh! oh!" "This is strange. But the fiery-headed thing? Yet it was with you, and you are harmless. But why are you here at this time of night?" "Nay, why are YOU?" "Perhaps we are on the same errand? Ah you are his _good_ sister, Kate." "And you are Margaret Brandt." "Yea." "All the better. You love him: you are here. Then Giles was right. He has won free." Gerard came forward, and put the question at rest. But all further explanation was cut short by a horrible, unearthly noise, like a sepulchre ventriloquizing. "PARCHMENT!--PARCHMENT!--PARCHMENT!"