'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.