Page:Remarkable family adventure of Saunders Watson (1).pdf/11

Rh the light that now gleamed in at the windows, shed a faint twillight radience through the deep obscurity that formerly reigned within it, Saunders and his son now becam visible to each other, for the first time sine they had entered the Session-house. They were placed opposite to each other, one on either side of window—Saundy with his elbow leaning upon the Scots Worthies, as he had been commanded, and his father in the same relative position with regard to the Ha’ Bible. The moonbeams were scarcely powerful enough to penetrate the damp hazy air of their dreary apartment; yet the light was sufficient to disclose the sexton’s tools, lying huddled together in one of its corners at a little distance. Saunders was just about to make some melancholy remark on the sad service they had lately been employed in upon his account, when his son, who had been gazing through the window for a few seconds, touched his father’s knee with the point of his finger, and whispered in a state of great alarm, “O faither, what’s that I hear aboot Mary’s grave!”

This direful whisper acted like the discharge of an electric battery upon the nerves of Saunders, His whole body shook like a person under a fit of ague; his blood curcled with horror at the thought of the unhallowed purpose for which any person could be