‘We? I was quite alone now, and broad awake! The house and all else had vanished. As the recollections of the past night came crowding back, I sprang up and looked around in wonder. The house—the very room—in which I’d been was so distinctly before my mind’s eye, that I stood staring in amazement to find myself alone. No vestige of the house I’ve described to you, and no Vermudyn either! I told myself that I was clean mad. I searched for him in a sort of frantic hurry, and shouted his name, but heard only the echoes answer me.
‘I tried to get farther into the cave at the mouth of which I’d been lying; but I soon found the way closed by a big chunk of rock. There was no other outlet to the cave, and there was nothing to explain the mystery. There was no sign of Vermudyn or his horse; that, no doubt, had strayed during the night. But where was he, and where, above all, had we two spent the night? I was fairly stunned. I felt for my knife, my revolver. These, with my belt, were safe enough. I had lost nothing. I was simply cold, hungry, and quite alone—save for my nag; and how glad I was of that companion, I can’t tell you! He would be the means of getting me away from that awful place faster than my legs could carry me.
‘I found a hunch of bread and some meat in my wallet; but I was too excited and wretched over Vermudyn’s disappearance, to light a fire and boil some tea. As soon as I’d swallowed down my breakfast, I mounted my horse, and rode backwards and forwards for a good two hours, searching for the body, for I was clear in my own mind that my poor old mate was dead.
‘Dead or alive, I hated to think of riding away and leaving him there in the Devil’s Panniken. But it was no good. I hunted every hole and corner within a mile of the place—as near as I could judge—where we had spent the night. At last I gave up the hopeless search—no signs of Vermudyn anywhere; and before noon, I had turned my horse’s head away from the wretched place, and for the first mile or so I rode so hard and fast that I began to blame my own folly in running away in broad daylight. From what, too?
‘Ay, there was the rub! What was I riding away from? and how had I escaped, while Vermudyn was lost? I was almost mad when I went over the past twenty-four hours. I couldn’t believe my senses. All I’d seen and heard too; and the only other witness was gone, vanished as completely as if he had been a spectre or part of some nightmare dream!
‘I felt my brain reel as I passed mile after mile along the lonely road, till at last I began to wonder if the Vermudyn I thought I knew was ever a living man, or if he made part of a long hideous dream, which I thought I should never forget or get over.
‘But I couldn’t cheat myself so; the man had written his name inside my pocket-book, “C. Vermudyn,” and had given me a ring he told me he once bought in an eastern bazaar. I’ve worn the ring ever since, in memory of him and that awful Halloween night.
‘Sure enough, Vermudyn was no dream; but from that day to this his name has never crossed my lips; and nothing would induce me ever again to ride through the Devil’s Panniken either by day or night.
‘In my own mind, boys, it’s as clear as daylight that the body found in that cave Gentleman Jack was telling you of a while since was neither more nor less than the skeleton of my poor old mate Vermudyn. I never thought to hear of his bones being found after all these years, poor old chap; or of telling you to-night what happened to us that Halloween in the Devil’s Panniken. I only hope he wasn’t alive in that awful place!—alive, and shouting for help, shut up there alone, and hopeless in the dark, whilst I was riding away in sunshine and clear air!—Phaw!’ muttered the old man; ‘it’s no good to think of that now; and talking’s dry work.—Another go of whisky, Pat!’
The murmurs of admiration, astonishment, and feeble doubt over this wondrous story of Old Grizzly’s were arrested almost ere they began, and each man stopped short, as a low, long laugh sounded through the room, and they then perceived what, being absorbed in the ‘tale of mystery,’ they had been too preoccupied to notice before—namely, that a stranger had entered the room some time during the progress of the narrative, and it was he who had dared to laugh! All eyes were turned significantly and inquiringly upon this presumptuous stranger; and one gentleman had gone so far as to deliver himself of the original remark, that ‘he calculated to call that mighty cool,’ when the new-comer advanced into the light of the flaring kerosene lamp, and Old Grizzly sprang to his feet, speechless and aghast.