Part 20 (2/2)
”If not,” I answered, my words scarce steadier, ”then soaze on such a sight Has it been there long?”
”I know not whence it ca the crest
After I bathed at the strea the commissary for a bite hich to refresh the innerstone,to keep lance up to mark the position of the moon, and there that hell's i ever since
_Sacre_! it was the bravest deed ofdid charm me as a snake does a bird”
The mere sound of human speech put new heart into me, yet I found it difficult to avert ure
”If that is the Devil,” I said more composedly, still enthralled by the baleful presence, ”surely we have neither of us done so much evil as to make us especially his victi back, a sudden rustling alance around Out of the glooure uplifted itself on all fours, and the faint light of a star glimmered directly down upon an upraised, terror-stricken face Before either De Noyan or , the half-awakened preacher sent his great, gruff voice boo out into the air:
”O Lord God of Israel deliver Thy servant from destruction and the clutch of the Evil One O Lord God of----”
I flunghis speech into a vain gurgle The fellowme for an assistant of the fiend, my fierce hold was jerked loose, and I was hurled heavily backward at full length upon the stones, striking with no pleasant force upon my shoulder
”Verily have I overcoan fervently
”Be still, you red-headed Connecticut fool,” I cohly aroused ”Stop, or I 'll drive into you a leaden slug to silence that blundering tongue of yours for good and all Get up from your knees there, and play the rip on that bull voice of yours”
”It makes small odds now,” chimed in De Noyan with easier tone ”The Devil, or what, has disappeared frolanced up at his words, to find thee, as if the daere near The vanishi+ng of that spectral figure relieved us greatly, while the steady coht revived those spirits upon which the haunted night had rested grimly Nevertheless I felt it incu sectary for such untimely uproar
”Did you rimly, ”an assembly of crop-eared worshi+ppers, that you venture to lift your voice in such a hohen you wake? It will be better if you learn to keep still at such a ti with ardand damned heretic Had it not been in all the earnestness of a contrite spirit I besought the Lord in prayer, wrestling even as did David of old, 'tis not likely the foul fiend I beheld on yonder crest would have departed so easily I tell you, you unregenerated son of iniquity, it is naught save the faith of the elect, the prayer of the redeemed, which overcomes the wiles of the Devil, and relieves the children of God fro with the fanatic; yet much of my previous superstitious terror at our unwelco upon my mind a firm conviction that the apparition was not a denizen of the sulphurous regions of the damned, but was composed of flesh and blood, even as ourselves I think Madareater part of the cohtly even when De Noyan first infore presence Yet she spoke not a word Realizing her judgment was ever clearer than that of either of my male companions, I turned to awaken her to some expression
”And do you also, Madame, believe that we have been honored by a visit fro as I spoke that she should appear so undisturbed into ravely, her eyes questioning my face, as if to read therein what answer I desired ”I have that about ers toyed with the beads of a rosary at her throat, ”which would protect me from his touch”
”What then did you ravely startledsufficient strength for the uplifting of a hand So speak, Mada,--was that flesh and blood, or was it sohastly visitant from the unknown?”
”I believe,” she answered firmly, ”it was human To my eyes a wild man, partially arrayed in white skins, decorated with a hastly tall, and weirdly distorted in the ht--a fiend, indeed, yet not of the upper air”
”An Indian?”
”I know not what other naely fair in the sheen for one of the red race”
My roving, unsatisfied eyes met those of De Noyan
”Blessed Mother!” he ejaculated with a short, uneasy laugh ”I never would have thought it in the night Holy Saints preserve s e, and I would not swear but Eloise ht”
”And you, friend Cairnes?” In a few, brief English sentences I retold to the sectary this opinion expressed by Madaloo oddly ere he found speech