"About five-and-twenty years ago, a stranger came to this hut--may the
curse of God annihilate him!--"
"Amen to that," said the young man.
"He brought with him a boy and a girl, a purse of gold, and ---- the
arch fiend's tongue, to tempt me! Well, it was to take these children
out to sea--upset the boat--and lose them!"--
"And you did so!" interrupted the stranger.
"I tried--but listen. On a fine evening, I took them out: the sun sunk
rapidly, and I knew by the freshening of the breeze, there would be a
storm. I was not mistaken. It came on even faster than I wished. The
children were alarmed--the boy, in particular, grew suspicious; he
insisted that I had an object in going out so far at sun-set. This
irritated me,--and I rose to smite him, when the fair girl interposed
her fragile form between us. She screamed for mercy, and clung to my
arm with the desperation of despair. _I could not shake her off_! The
boy had the spirit of a man; he seized a piece of spar, and struck me
on the temples. 'How, you villain!' said he, 'your life or mine!' At
that moment the boat upset, and we were all adrift. The boy I never
saw again--a tremendous sea broke between us--but the wretched girl
clung to me like hate! Damnation!--her dying scream is ringing in my
ears like madness! I struck her on the forehead, and she sank--all but
her hand, one little, white hand would not sink! I threw myself on my
back, and struck at it with both my feet--and then I thought it sunk
for ever. I made the shore with difficulty, for I was stunned and
senseless, and the ocean heaved as if it would have washed away the
mortal world--and the lightnings blazed as if all hell had come to
light the scene of warfare! I have never since been on the sea at
midnight, but that hand has followed or preceded me; I have never
----." Here he sank down from his seat, and rolled himself in agony
upon the floor.
"Poor wretch!" muttered the stranger, "what hinders now my long-sought
vengeance? Even with my foot--but thou shalt share my murdered
sister's grave!"
"A shot is fired--look out for the light!" said the young man.
The Fisher went to the door; but suddenly started back, clasping his
hands before his face.
"Fire and brimstone! there it is again!" he cried.
"What?" said his companion, looking cooly round him.
"That infernal hand! Lightnings blast it!--but that's impossible," he
added, in a fearful under-tone, which sounded as if some of the eternal
rocks around him were adding a response to his imprecations--"_that's_
impossible! It is a part of them--it has been so for years--darkness
could not shroud it--distance could not separate it from my burning
eye-balls!--awake, it was there--asleep, it flickered and blazed before
me!--it has been my rock a-head through life, and it will herald me to
hell!" So saying, he pressed his sinewy hands upon his face, and buried
his head between his knees, till the rock beneath him seemed to shake
with his uncontrollable agony.
"Again it beckons me!" said he, starting up--"ten thousand fires are
blazing in my heart--in my brain!--where, _where_ can I be worse?
Fiend, I defy thee!"
"I see nothing," said his companion, with unalterable composure.
"You see nothing!" thundered the Fisher, with mingling sarcasm and
fury--"look _there_." He snatched his hand, and pointing steadily into
the gloom, again murmured, "Look there! look there!"
At that moment the lightning blazed around with appalling brilliancy;
and the stranger saw a small white hand, pointing tremulously upwards.
"I saw it there," said he, "but it is not _hers_! Infatuated,
abandoned villain." he continued, with irrepressible energy, "it is
not my sister's hand--no! it is the incarnate fiend's who tempted you,
and who now waves you to perdition--begone together!"
He aimed a dreadful blow at the astonished Fisher, who instinctively
avoided the stroke. Mutually wound up to the highest pitch of anger,
they grappled each the other's throat, set their feet, and strained
for the throw, which was inevitably to bury both in the wild waves
beneath. A faint shriek was heard, and a gibbering, as of many voices,
came fluttering around them.
"Chatter on!" said the Fisher, "he joins you now!"
"Together--it will be together!" said the stranger, as with a last
desperate effort he bent his adversary backward from the betling
cliff. The voice of the Fisher sounded hoarsely in execration, as they
dashed into the sea together; but what he said was drowned in the
hoarser murmur of the uplashing surge! The body of the stranger was
found on the next morning, flung far up on the rocky shore--but that
of the murderer was gone for ever!
The superstitious peasantry of the neighbourhood still consider the
spot as haunted; and at midnight, when the waves dash fitfully against
the perilous crags, and the bleak winds sweep with long and angry moan
around them, they still hear the gibbering voices of the fiends, and
the mortal execrations of the Warlock Fisher!--but, after that fearful
night, no man ever saw THE PHANTOM HAND!--_Literary Magnet_.
* * * * *