ANOTHER PHANTASM 43 



in and a part of the wind, since it did not rest still 

 for one instant, but had a flutter like the flutter we 

 used to see in a cinematograph picture, and con- 

 tinually moved to and fro and vanished and re- 

 appeared almost every second, always keeping on a 

 level with and about three feet removed from my 

 eyes. The flutter and motion generally was like that 

 of a flag or of some filmy substance agitated by the 

 wind. Then it vanished and I saw it no more. 



It was to me an amazing experience, as I am about 

 the last person in the universe to suffer from delusions 

 and illusions, being, as someone has said, " too dis- 

 gustingly sane for anything," or at all events to 

 experience such things ; and I consequently soon came 

 to the conclusion that this phantom was of a nature 

 of a telepathic communication. Whether or not it 

 was a right conclusion, the reader will judge when he 

 knows the sequel. But I must first relate a second 

 similar experience which came to me two years later. 



I was out in a high wind, an exceptionally violent 

 and very cold east wind in early March, on this 

 occasion blowing on my back, and I was walking 

 very fast over a heath towards a huge pile of rocks 

 forming a headland on the west Cornish coast. I 

 had visited the headland on the previous day, and had 

 sat a long time on the summit of the rocky pile watch- 

 ing the sea birds, and on coming home I discovered 

 to my disgust that I had left my nice thick leather 

 gloves on the rock where I had pulled them off. 

 And this high rock was unfortunately the favourite 

 resort of a pair of ravens. My object now was 



