"I was petrified with astonishment, frozen to the spot, until my wraith, for assuredly I considered it nothing else, arrived at the gate leading into the minister's garden, when it turned; and then, as if in great alarm, suddenly rushed through the small gate and disappeared. I was roused, and now started off in pursuit at the very top of my speed, but reached the gate only in time to see the figure clear the holly hedge that screened the front of the manse, at a bound, with the wooden-leg unstrapped and flourishing in its hand, and vanish beyond it. I had then to make a small detour to get through the wicket in the fence; but before I got round, whatever it might have been, it was nowhere to be seen. "I ran up to the door in breathless haste, and, early as it was, began to knock furiously for admittance, without well thinking what I was about. No one answered, and an open window on the ground-floor now attracted my attention. I looked in--and who should I see snoring on 'the bred of his back,' in his wee fold-down pallet, but young Moses Bland, the helper, with--I went frantic at the sight--the ghost of my ain wooden leg lying across the body! "'Now I have run the fox to earth,' said I. "'And wha makes such an indecent uproar at the door, at such an untimeous season?' quoth the _auld minister_, from an upper window. "'It is me, sir--I Saunders Skelp, wha ye hae sae unjustly maligned, minister. Gude forgie me that I should say so.' "'Off with you, ye scoonrel,' quoth the usually mild minister--'off with you, sir, or I'll make you repent it.' "'Na, minister, when you are cool, you will yoursell repent your conduct to me. Here, sir, tak your cloak about you, and come down _here_--you'll soon see that the evildoer is nearer a-kin to you than Saunders Skelp.'" The minister came down, and now there was the devil to pay between him and his helper; but the latter protested his innocence so vehemently, that at length the dominie was unceremoniously ejected, with the additional accusation sticking to him, of having in cold blood, and for purposes of deceit, actually made a duplicate of his wooden-leg, in order to cast the blame on young Mr Bland. He was thus on the eve of getting set deeper and faster in the mire than ever, when in came the betherel and Tam Clink, who, being on the watch, had seen Saunders pursue his own _double_ towards the manse, so that Moses Bland once more became the subject of suspicion.