Ghost Stories of an Antiquary | Page 3

I guessed there had been some sort
of trouble. "Well," I said, "what did you get?" "Oh, I don't know," said
McLeod, "nothing much: but I think Sampson's rather sick with me."
"Why, did you show him up some rot?" "No fear," he said. "It was all
right as far as I could see: it was like this: Memento--that's right enough
for remember, and it takes a genitive,--memento putei inter quatuor
taxos." "What silly rot!" I said. "What made you shove that down?
What does it mean?" "That's the funny part," said McLeod. "I'm not
quite sure what it does mean. All I know is, it just came into my head
and I corked it down. I know what I think it means, because just before
I wrote it down I had a sort of picture of it in my head: I believe it
means 'Remember the well among the four'--what are those dark sort of
trees that have red berries on them?" "Mountain ashes, I s'pose you
mean." "I never heard of them," said McLeod; "no, I'll tell you--yews."
"Well, and what did Sampson say?" "Why, he was jolly odd about it.
When he read it he got up and went to the mantelpiece and stopped

quite a long time without saying anything, with his back to me. And
then he said, without turning round, and rather quiet, 'What do you
suppose that means?' I told him what I thought; only I couldn't
remember the name of the silly tree: and then he wanted to know why I
put it down, and I had to say something or other. And after that he left
off talking about it, and asked me how long I'd been here, and where
my people lived, and things like that: and then I came away: but he
wasn't looking a bit well."
'I don't remember any more that was said by either of us about this.
Next day McLeod took to his bed with a chill or something of the kind,
and it was a week or more before he was in school again. And as much
as a month went by without anything happening that was noticeable.
Whether or not Mr Sampson was really startled, as McLeod had
thought, he didn't show it. I am pretty sure, of course, now, that there
was something very curious in his past history, but I'm not going to
pretend that we boys were sharp enough to guess any such thing.
'There was one other incident of the same kind as the last which I told
you. Several times since that day we had had to make up examples in
school to illustrate different rules, but there had never been any row
except when we did them wrong. At last there came a day when we
were going through those dismal things which people call Conditional
Sentences, and we were told to make a conditional sentence, expressing
a future consequence. We did it, right or wrong, and showed up our bits
of paper, and Sampson began looking through them. All at once he got
up, made some odd sort of noise in his throat, and rushed out by a door
that was just by his desk. We sat there for a minute or two, and then--I
suppose it was incorrect--but we went up, I and one or two others, to
look at the papers on his desk. Of course I thought someone must have
put down some nonsense or other, and Sampson had gone off to report
him. All the same, I noticed that he hadn't taken any of the papers with
him when he ran out. Well, the top paper on the desk was written in red
ink--which no one used--and it wasn't in anyone's hand who was in the
class. They all looked at it--McLeod and all--and took their dying oaths
that it wasn't theirs. Then I thought of counting the bits of paper. And
of this I made quite certain: that there were seventeen bits of paper on

the desk, and sixteen boys in the form. Well, I bagged the extra paper,
and kept it, and I believe I have it now. And now you will want to
know what was written on it. It was simple enough, and harmless
enough, I should have said.
'"Si tu non veneris ad me, ego veniam ad te," which means, I suppose,
"If you don't come to me, I'll come to you."'
'Could you show me the paper?' interrupted the listener.
'Yes, I could: but there's another odd thing about it. That same
afternoon I took it out of my locker--I know for certain it was the same
bit, for I made a finger-mark on it--and no single trace of writing of any
kind was there on it. I