University of Virginia Library

13. CHAPTER XIII.
What befell the author on his way to the Owl-roost.

As it was now the full of the moon, there was
of course light enough for my purpose; but the
sky was dappled with clouds very dense and heavy,
some of which crossing the moon every minute or
two, there was a constant alternation of light and
darkness, so that the trees and all other objects
were constantly changing their appearance, now
starting up in bold relief, white and silvery from
the darkness, and now vanishing again into gloom.

A cloud passed over the moon just as I reached
the old church; and the wall of the burial-ground
having fallen down at a certain place, where the
rubbish obstructed the path, it was my ill luck to
break my shin against a fragment; the pain of
which caused me to utter a loud groan. To my
amazement and horror, this interjection of suffering
was echoed from the grave-yard hard by, a voice
screaming out in awful tones, “O Lord! O Lord!”
and casting my eyes round, I beheld, as I thought,

three or four shapes, that I deemed nothing less
than devils incarnate, dancing about among the
tomb-stones.

I was seized with such terror at this sight, that,
forgetting my hurt and the treasure together, I took
to my heels, and did not cease running until I had
left the church some quarter of a mile behind me;
and I am not certain I should have come to a halt
then, had it not been my fate to tumble over a cow
that lay ruminating on the path; whereby, besides
half breaking my neck, and cruelly scratching my
nose, I stunned myself to that degree, that it was
some two or three minutes before I was able to
rise.

I had thus time to recollect myself, and reflect
that I was running away from Captain Kid's money,
the idea of losing which was not to be tolerated a
moment.

But how to get to the Owl-roost without falling
into the hands of the devils or spectres at the old
church, was what gave me infinite concern. The
midnight hour—the only one for attempting the
treasure with success—was now close at hand; so
that there was no time left me to reach the place
by a roundabout course through the woods to the
right, or over the meadows to the left. I must
pass the old church, or I must perhaps give up the
treasure.

There was no time to deliberate; the figures I
had seen, and the cries I had heard, might have
been coinages of my own brain; nay, the latter

were perhaps, after all, only the echoes of my own
voice, distorted into something terrible by my fears.
I was not naturally superstitious, and had never before
believed in ghosts. But I cannot recollect
what precise arguments occurred to me at that moment,
to cause me to banish my fears. The hope
of making my fortune was doubtless the strongest
of all; and the moon suddenly shining out with the
effulgence almost of day, I became greatly imboldened,
and, in a word, set forward again, resolved,
if met by a second apparition, and driven to flight,
to fly, not backwards, but forwards,—that is, in the
direction of the Owl-roost.

On this occasion, it was my fortune to be saluted
by an owl that sat on the old wall among some
bushes, and hooted at me as I went by; and notwithstanding
that the sound was extremely familiar
to my ears, I was thrown into a panic, and took to
my heels as before; though, as I had resolved, I
ran onward, pursuing the path to the swamp. It is
quite possible there may have been a crew of imps
and disimbodied spirits jumping among the graves
as before; but, as I had the good fortune to be
frightened before I caught sight of them, I did not
stop to look for them; and, for the same reason, I
heard no more awful voices shrieking in my ears.
I reached the Owl-roost and the memorable beech-tree,
where the necessity of acting with all speed
helped me to get rid of my terror. I knew that I
had not a moment to spare, and running to the
bushes where I had hidden my mattock and spade, I

fetched them to the tree, and instantly began to
dig, not forgetting to pray backwards all the while,
as hard as I could.