THE RED MAN OF THE GIBBET GIVES WARNING TO THE SKELETON
CREW—DEATH-WING LEADS ON THE LAST ATTACK OF HIS CREW—NED WARBECK,
BOB BERTRAM, LIEUTENANT GARNET, AND TIM HAVE AMPLE REVENGE—STIRRING
SCENES.
But although the “Dozen,” with Captain Jack, and old Bates, were
disposed of by the grim hands of the law, there were other enemies
who roamed still at large.
Phillip Redgill lay dying upon his bed in a lunatic asylum, and made
night hideous with his awful shouts and oaths.
It almost seemed as if he were haunted by a thousand demons, for both
night and day he screeched and yelled in the most frightful manner,
so that his dismal cries could be heard afar off.
“Take them away! take them away!” he would scream aloud with a
foaming mouth, wild, widely distended eyes, his hair standing on end,
and gnashing his teeth.
“Take them away, take them away! the legs are bleeding—they are
walking—they are following me, wherever I go. Away with them—destroy
them! Take them away!” he would shout, both day and night, while he
kicked and tore the bed-clothes like an incarnate fiend.
The keepers shook their heads, and looked very serious and silent.
Some of the men went so far as to say that they had seen the gory
legs.
Others, not so bold, swore that they had heard them walking up and
down the maniac’s cell, at the hour of midnight.
Certain it is, that after suffering the most terrible tortures of
mind and body, Phillip Redgill seemed to become suddenly calmer, and
his reason returned.
But on a certain night, just as the tower clocks chimed the hour of
twelve, he shouted out—
“Here is the Red Man of the Gibbet, he stands beside me! on my left
hand is the ghost of my father; and walking over the bed-clothes are
the phantom legs! Mercy—mercy! pardon—pardon! A thousand devils haunt
my heart and soul. Away, away! avaunt! I die—I die!”
He fell prostrate on the stone floor, foaming at the mouth.
Life was not yet quite extinct.
Again he screamed out—
“The legs—the phantom legs are here once more—away, away!”
A voice at that same moment was heard to say in awful sepulchral
tones,
“Phillip Redgill, I will follow you for _ever_!” Phillip Redgill rose
to his feet like one again raised to life—uttered a terrible scream,
and—_fell dead, foaming blood_!