Two men are discussing the folklore of the private schools they attended.

One tells of a Latin teacher named Mr. Sampson who kept a Byzantine coin that he would show his students.

The narrator's friend gives the teacher a strange message in Latin which translates to "remember the well among the four yews",[1] though he doesn't know why he wrote it.

Later another paper shows up translating to "If you don't come to me, I'll come to you",[2] and it visibly worries Sampson.

Later at night the narrator's friend sees a horribly thin, corpse-like man sitting on Sampson's window-sill, but when he returns with the narrator the figure is gone.