"
"I don't understand."
"Bagpipes,
Mary. Bagpipes. Twice you heard them, and twice after saw the
`spirits' which gave credence to all else, the foundation on which the
whole illusion was built. Here is what must have happened.
"The first spirit I can answer for plainly, for it was myself. James
and I had at last crossed the high road, and returned to land we could
think of as our own. He had been given the pipes by a crippled
soldier, one of our own, who took us in along the way. And now James
would be silent no longer. He insisted that we return as proud
veterans, and not skulking thieves. So as we parted ways at the last,
and when he deemed me safely hidden by the rise that shields the
cottage, he began to play, and marched off in defiant glory.
"Shortly afterward I found you in tears, lying across a grave that
bore my name. It broke my heart to leave you there, even with the
spoken promise---you did not imagine it---that I would come back to
you. But I was determined to bring no danger upon you, or upon this
house, until the pursuit had cooled, and the chance of discovery grown
less.
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