The Inn of the Two Witches. A Short Story by Joseph Conrad

[Music] the Inn of the Two Witches a find Joseph Conrad this Tale episode experience call it how you will was related in the 50s of the last century by a man who by his own confession was 60 years old at the time 60 is not a bad age unless in perspective when no doubt it is contemplated by the majority of us with mixed feelings it is a cal age the game is practically over by then and standing Aside one begins to remember with a certain vividness What a fine fellow one used to be I have

observed that by an amiable attention of Providence most people at 60 begin to take a romantic view of themselves their very failures exhale a charm of peculiar potency and indeed the hopes of the future are a fine company to live with exquisite forms fascinating if you like but so to speak naked stripped for a run the Robes of Glamour are luckily the Property of the immovable past which without them would sit a shivery sort of thing under the Gathering Shadows I suppose it was the Romanticism of growing age which set our man to relate his

experience for his own satisfaction or for The Wonder of his posterity it could not have been for his glory because the experience was simply that of of an abominable fright Terror he calls it you would have guessed that the relation alluded to in the very first Lines was in writing this writing constitutes the find declared in the subtitle the title itself is my own contrivance can't call it invention and has the Merit of veracity we will be concerned with an in here as to the witches that's merely a conventional expression and we must take our

man's word for it that it fits the case the find was made in a box of books bought in London in a street which no longer exists from a secondhand book seller in The last stage of Decay as to the books themselves they were at least 20th hand and on inspection turned out not worth the very small sum of money I dispersed it might have been some premonition of that fact which made me say but I must have the box too the decayed book seller ascented by the careless tragic gesture of a man already doomed

to Extinction a litter of loose Pages at the bottom of the Box excited my curiosity but faintly the close neat regular handwriting was Not attractive at First Sight but in one place the statement that in ad. 1813 the writer was 22 years old caught my eye 2 and 20 is an interesting age in which one is easily Reckless and easily frightened The Faculty of reflection being weak and the power of imagination strong in another place the phrase at night we stood in again arrested my languid attention because it was a CA phrase let's see what

it is all about I thought Without excitement oh but it was a dull faed Ms each line resembling every other line in their close set and regular order it was like the Drone of a monotonous voice A Treatise on sugar refining the dreariest subject I can think of could have been given a more lively appearance in ad 1813 I was 22 years old he begins earnestly and goes on with every appearance of calm horrible industry don't imagine however that there is anything archaic in my Find diabolic Ingenuity in invention though as old as the world

is by no means a lost art look at the telephones for shattering the little peace of mind given to us in this world or at the machine guns for letting with dispatch life out of of our bodies now aay any Blair eyed old witch if only strong enough to turn an insignificant little handle could lay low aund young men of 20 in the twinkling of an eye if this isn't progress why immense we have moved On and so you must expect to meet here a certain naiveness of contrivance and simplicity of aim pertaining to the

remote epic and of course no motoring tourist can hope to find such an inn anywhere now this one the one of of the title was situated in Spain that much I discovered only from internal evidence because a good many pages of that relation were missing perhaps not a great Misfortune after all the writer seemed to have entered into a most Elaborate detail of the why and wherefore of his presence on that Coast presumably the North Coast of Spain his experience has nothing to do with the sea though as far as I can make it out

he was an officer on board a Sloop of War there's nothing range in that at all stages of the long Peninsula Campaign many of our Men of War of the smaller kind were cruising off the North Coast of Spain as risky and disagreeable a station as can be well imagined it looks As though that ship of his had had some special service to perform a careful explanation of all the circumstances was to be expected from our man only as I've said some of his Pages good tough paper too were missing gone in covers for Jos

or in wadding for the fowling pieces of his irreverent posterity but it is to be seen clearly that communication with the shore and even the sending of Messengers Inland was part of her service either to obtain intelligence from or to transmit Orders or advice to patriotic Spaniards geros or secret junter of the province something of the sort all this can be only inferred from the preserved scraps of his conscientious writing next we come upon the panag of a very fine sailor a member of the ship's company having the rating of the captain's Cox Wayne he

was known on board as Cuba Tom not because he was Cuban however he was indeed the best type of a genuine British tar of that Time and a man of Wars man for years he came by the name on account of some wonderful adventures he had in that Island in his young days Adventures which were the favorite subject of the Yarns he was in the habit of spinning to his Shipmates of an evening on The Forecastle head he was intelligent very strong and of proved courage incidentally we are told so exact is our narrator that

Tom had the finest pigtail for thickness and length of any man in The Navy this appendage much cared for and sheathed tightly in a paa skin hung halfway down his broad back to the great admiration of all beholders and to the great Envy of s our young officer dwells on the manly qualities of Cu Tom with something like affection this sort of relation between officer and man was not then very rare a youngster on joining the service was put under the charge of a trustworthy Seaman who slung his first hammock for him and Often later

on became a sort of humble friend to the junior officer the narrator on joining the Sloop had found this man on board after some years of separation there is something touching in the warm pleasure he remembers and records at this meeting with the professional mentor of his Boyhood we discover then that no Spaniard being forthcoming for the service this worthy Seaman with the unique pigtail and a very high character for courage and Steadiness had been selected as messenger for one of these missions Inland which have been mentioned his preparations were not elaborate one gloomy Autumn

morning the Sloop ran close to a shallow Cove where a landing could be made on that Ironbound Shore a boat was lowered and pulled in with Tom Corbin Cuba Tom perched in the bow and our young man Mr Edgar burn was his name on this Earth which knows him no more sitting in the stern sheets a few Inhabitants of a hamlet whose gray stone houses could be seen a 100 yards or so up a deep ravine had come down to the shore and watched the approach of the boat the two English leaped ashore either from

dullness or astonishment The Peasants gave no greeting and only fell back in silence Mr burn had made up his mind to see Tom Corbin started fairly on his way he looked round at the heavy surprised faces there isn't much to get out of them he said let us walk up to The Village there will be a wine shop for sure where we may find somebody more promising to talk to and get some information from I I sir said Tom falling into step behind his officer a bit of PIV as to courses and distances Can Do

no harm I crossed the broadest part of Cuba by the help of my tongue though knowing far less Spanish than I do now as they say themselves it was four words and no more with me that time when I got left behind on Shore by the Blanch frigate he made light of what was before him which was but a Day's Journey Into the mountains it is true that there was a full day's Journey before striking the mountain path but that was nothing for a man who had crossed the island of Cuba on his two legs

and with no more than four words of the language to begin with the officer and the man were walking now on a thick Soden bed of Dead Leaves which The Peasants thereabouts Accumulate in the streets of their villages to rot during the winter for field manure turning his head Mr burn perceived that the whole male population of the Hamlet was following them on the noiseless springy carpet women stared from the doors of the houses and the children had apparently gone into hiding the village knew the ship by sight a far off but no stranger had

landed on that spot perhaps for a hundred years or more the cocked hat of Mr burn the bushy Whiskers and the enormous pigtail of the Sailor filled them with mute wonder they pressed behind the two Englishmen staring like those Islanders discovered by Captain Cook in the South Seas it was then that burn had his first glimpse of the little cloaked man in a yellow hat faded and dingy as it was this covering for his head made him noticeable the entrance to the wine shop was like a rough hole in a wall of Flint the owner

was the only person who was Not in the street for he came out from the Darkness at the back where the inflated forms of wine skins hung on nails could be vaguely distinguished he was a tall oneeyed esturion with scrubby Hollow cheeks a gray expression of countenance contrasted enigmatically with the roaming restlessness of his solitary eye on learning that the matter in hand was the sending on his way of that English Mariner toward a certain Gonzalez in the mountains he closed his Good eye for a moment as if in meditation then opened it very Lively

again possibly possibly it could be done a friendly murmur arose in the group in the doorway at the name of gonzal the local leader against the French inquiring as to the safety of the road burn was glad to learn that no troops of that Nation had been seen in the neighborhood for months not the smallest little Detachment of these impious Polyon while giving these answers the owner of the wine shop busied himself in drawing into an earth andwar jug some wine which he set before the heretic English pocketing with grave abstraction the small piece of

money the officer threw upon on the table in recognition of the unwritten law that none may enter a wine shop without buying drink his eye was in constant motion as if it were trying to do the work of the two but when burn made inquiries as to the Possibility of hiring a mule it became immovably fixed in the direction of the door which was closely besieged by the Curious in front of them just within the threshold the little man in the large cloak and yellow hat had taken his stand he was a dimin person a

mere homunculus burn describes him in a ridiculously mysterious yet assertive attitude a corner of his cloak thrown cavalierly over his left shoulder muffling his chin and mouth while the broad brimmed yellow Hat hung on a corner of his Square little head he stood there taking snuff repeatedly a mule repeated the wine seller his eyes fixed on that quaint and Snuffy figure no Sen your officer decidedly no mule is to be got in this poor place the Cox Wayne who stood by with the true sailor's air of unconcern in strange surroundings struck in quietly if your

honor will believe me shank's Pony's the best for this job I would have to leave the Beast somewhere Anyhow since the captain has told me that half my way will be along paths fit only for goats the diminutive man made a step forward and speaking through the folds of the cloak which seemed to muffle a sarcastic intention Sai seor they are too honest in this Village to have a single mule amongst them for your worship service to that I can bear testimony in these times it's only Rogues or very clever men who can manage to

have mules or any other four-footed Beasts and the wherewith all to keep them but what this Valiant Mariner wants is a guide and here sea behold my brother-in-law Bernardino wine Celler and alcade of this most Christian and hospitable Village who will find you one this Mr burn says in his relation was the only thing to do a youth in a ragged coat and goatskin britches was produced after some more talk the English officer stood treat to the whole village and while the peasants drank he And Cuba Tom took their departure accompanied by the guide the

diminutive man in the cloak had disappeared burn went along with the Cox way out of the village he wanted to see him fairly on his way and he would have gone a greater distance if the Seaman had not suggested respectfully the advisability of return so as not to keep the ship a moment longer than necessary so close in with the shore on such an unpromising looking morning a wild gloomy Sky hung Over their heads when they took leave of each other and their surroundings of rank bushes and Stony Fields were dreary in four 4 days

time were Burn's Last Words the ship will stand in and send a boat on Shore if the weather permits if not you'll have to make it out on Shore the best you can till we come along to take you off right you are sir answered Tom and stro on Burn watched him step out on a narrow path in a thick PE jacket with a Pair of pistols in his belt a cutless by his side and a stout cudgel in his hand he looked a sturdy figure and well able to take care of himself he turned

around for a moment to wave his hand giving to burn one more view of his honest bronzed face with bushy whiskers the lad in Goat skinn breaches looking burn says like a fa or a young sat leaping ahead stopped to wait for him and then went off at a bound both disappeared burn turned back the Hamlet was hidden in a fold of the Ground and the spot seemed the most lonely corner of the earth and as if a cursed in its uninhabited desolate baroness before he had walked many yards there appeared very suddenly from behind

a bush the muffled up diminutive Spaniard naturally burn stopped short the other made a mysterious gesture with a tiny hand peeping from under his cloak his hat hung very much at the side of his head seor he said without any preliminaries caution it is a positive Fact that oneeyed Bernardino my brother-in-law has at this moment a mule in his St a and why he who is not clever has a mule there because he is a rogue a man without conscience because I had to give up the Macho to him to secure for myself a roof

to sleep under and a mouthful of Ola to keep my soul in this insignificant body of mine yet sea it contains a heart many times bigger than the mean thing which beats in the breast of that brute connection of mine of Which I am ashamed though I opposed that marriage with all my power well the misguided woman suffered enough she had her Purgatory on this Earth God rested her soul burn says he was so astonished by the sudden appearance of that Sprite likee being and by the sardonic bitterness of the speech that he was unable

to disentangle the significant fact from what seemed but a piece of family history fired out at him without Rhyme or Reason not at first he was Confounded and at the same time he was impressed by the rapid forcible delivery quite different from the frothy excited loquacity of an Italian so he stared while the homunculus letting his cloak fall about him aspired an immense quantity of snuff out of the hollow of his palm a mule exclaimed burn seizing at last the real aspect of the discourse you say he has got a mule that's queer why did

he refuse to let me have it the diminutive Spaniard muffled himself up Again with great dignity Ken sa he said coldly with a shrug of his draped shoulders he is a great Politico in everything he does but one thing your worship may be certain of that his intentions are always rascally this husband of my defa sister ought to have been married a long time ago to the Widow with the wooden legs hey I see but remember that whatever your motives your worship countenanced Him in this lie the bright unhappy eyes on each side of a

Predatory nose confronted burn without wincing while with that testiness which lurks so often at the bottom of Spanish dignity no doubt the Senor officer would not lose an ounce of blood if I were stuck under the fifth rib he retorted but what of this poor sinner here then changing his tone seor by the necessities of the times I live here in Exile a Ilan and an old Christian existing miserably in the midst of these Brut asrian and dependent on the worst Of them all who has less conscience and Scruples than a wolf and being a

man of intelligence I govern myself accordingly yet I can hardly contain my scorn you have heard the way I spoke a cabalero of Parts like your worship might have guessed that there was a cat in there what cat said burn uneasily oh I see something something suspicious no seor I guess nothing my nation are not good guesses at that sort of thing and therefore I ask you plainly Whether that wine seller has spoken the truth in other particulars there are certainly no Frenchmen anywhere about said the little man with a return to his indifferent manner

or robbers ladrones ladrones on Grand no assuredly not was the answer in a cold philosophical tone what is left for them to do after the French and nobody travels in these times but who can say opportunity makes the robber still that Mariner of yours has a fierce Aspect and with the son of a cat rats will have no play but there is a saying too that where honey is there will soon be flies this oracular discourse exasperated burn in the name of God he cried tell me plainly if you think my man is reasonably safe

on his journey the homunculus undergoing one of his rapid changes seized the officer's arm the grip of his little hand was astonishing seor Bernardino had taken Notice of him what more do you want and listen men have disappeared on this road on a certain portion of this road when Bernardino kept a Mison an inn and I his brother-in-law had coaches and mules for hire now there are no Travelers no coach coaches the French have ruined me Bernardino has retired here for reasons of his own after my sister died they were three to torment the life

out of her he and hermenia and Lucilla two aunts of his all Affiliated to the devil And now he has robbed me of my last mule you are an armed man demand the Macho from him with a pistol to his head seor it is not his I tell you and ride after your man who is so precious to you and then you shall both be safe for no two Travelers have been ever known to disappear together in these days as to the Beast I its owner I confide it to your honor they were staring hard

at each other and burn nearly burst into a laugh at the Ingenuity and transparency Of the little man's plot to regain possession of his mule but he had no difficulty to keep a straight face because he felt deep within himself a strange inclination to do that very extraordinary thing he did not laugh but his lip quivered at which the diminutive Spaniard detaching his black glittering eyes from Burn's face turned his back on him Brusly with a gesture and a fling of the cloak which somehow expressed contempt bitterness and discouragement All at once he turned away

and Stood Still his hat a slant muffled up to the ears but he was not offended to the point of refusing the silver Duro which burn offered him with a non-committal speech as if nothing extraordinary had passed between them I must make haste on board now said burn then via Ed conos muttered The Gnome and this interview ended with a sarcastic low sweep of the hat which was replaced at the same perilous angle as before directly the Boat had been hoisted the ship's sails were filled on the offshore Tac and burn imparted the whole story

to his captain who was but a very few years old older than himself there was some amused indignation at it but while they laughed they looked Gravely at each other a Spanish dwarf trying to beguile an officer of his Majesty's Navy into stealing a mule for him that was too funny too ridiculous too incredible those were the exclamations Of the captain he couldn't get over the grotesqueness of it incredible that's just it murmured burn at last in a significant tone they exch changed a long stare it's as clear as daylight affirmed the captain impatiently because

in his heart he was not certain and Tom the best Seaman in the ship for one the good humoredly deferential friend of his Boyhood for the other was becoming endowed with a compelling Fascination like a symbolic figure of loyalty Appealing to their feelings and their conscience so that they could not detach their thoughts from his safety several times they went up on Deck only to look at the coast as if it could tell them something of his fate it stretched away lengthening in the distance mute naked and Savage veiled now and then by the slanting

cold shafts of rain the Westerly swell rolled its interminable angry lines of foam and big dark clouds Flew Over the ship in a Sinister Procession I wish to goodness you had done what your little friend in the Yellow Hat wanted you to do said the commander of the Sloop late in the afternoon with visible exasperation do you sir answered burn bitter with positive anguish I wonder what you would have said afterwards why I might have been kicked out of the service for looting a mule from a nation in Alliance with his majesty or I might

have been battered to a pulp with flails And pitchforks a pretty tale to get abroad about one of your officers while trying to steal a mule or chased ignominiously to the boat for you would not have expected me to shoot down unoffending people for the sake of a mangy mule and yet he added in a low voice I almost wish myself I had done it before dark those two young men had worked themselves up into a highly complex psychological state of scornful skepticism and alarmed credulity it Tormented them exceedingly and the thought that it would

have to last for 6 days at least and possibly be prolonged further for an indefinite time was not to be be born the ship was therefore put on the inshore tack at dark all through the Gusty dark night she went towards the land to look for her man at times lying over in the heavy Puffs at others rolling idle in the swell nearly stationary as if she too had a mind of her own to swing perplexed between cool Reason and warm impulse then just at Daybreak a boat put off from her and went on tossed

by the Seas towards the shallow Cove where with considerable difficulty an officer in a thick coat and a round hat managed to land on a strip of shingle it was my wish writes Mr burn a wish of which my captain approved to land secretly if possible I did not want to be seen either by my aggrieved friend in the Yellow Hat whose motives were not clear Or by the oneeyed wine seller who may or may not have been Affiliated to the devil or indeed by any other dweller in in that primitive Village but unfortunately the

Cove was the only possible Landing place for miles and from the steepness of the Ravine I couldn't make a circuit to avoid the houses fortunately he goes on all the people were yet in their beds it was barely daylight when I found myself walking on the thick layer of Soden Leaves filling the only Street no soul was stirring abroad no dog barked the silence was profound and I had concluded with some wonder that apparently no dogs were kept in the hamlet when I heard a low snarl and from a noisome Alley between two HS emerged

a vile Cur with its tail between its legs he slunk off silently showing me his teeth as he ran before me and he disappeared so suddenly that he might have been the unclean incarnation of the evil one there was Too something so weird in the manner of its coming and Vanishing that my spirit already by no means very high became further depressed by the revolting sight of this creature as if by an unlucky pressage he got away from the coast unobserved as far as he knew then struggled manfully to the West against Wind and Rain

on a Barren dark Upland under a sky of Ashes far away the harsh and desolate mountains raising their scarped and denuded ridges seemed to Wait for him menacingly the evening found him fairly near to them but in Sailor language uncertain of his position hungry wet and tired out by a day of steady tramping over Broken Ground during which he had seen very few people and had been unable to obtain the slightest intelligence of Tom Corbin's passage on on I must push on he had been saying to himself through the hours of solitary effort spurred more

by incertitude than by any definite Fear or definite hope the lowering daylight died out quickly leaving him faced by a broken bridge he descended into the Ravine fored a narrow stream by the last gleam of Rapid water and clambering out on the other side was met by the Knight which fell like a bandage over his eyes the wind Sweeping in the darkness the broadside of the Sierra worried his ears by a continuous roaring noise as of a maddened sea he suspected that he had lost the road even in Daylight with its ruts and mud holes

and Ledges of out cropping Stone it was difficult to distinguish from the dreary waste of the Moore interspersed with Boulders and clumps of naked bushes but as he says he steered his course by the feel of the wind his hat rammed low on his brow his head down stopping now and again from Mere weariness of Mind rather than of body as if not his strength but his resolution were being overtaxed by the strain of endeavor half suspected to Be Vain and by the unrest of his feelings in one of these pauses borne in the wind

faintly as if from very far away he heard a sound of knocking just knocking on wood he noticed that the wind had lulled suddenly his heart started beating tumultuously because in himself he carried the impression of the desert solitudes he had been traversing for the last 6 hours the oppressive sense of an uninhabited world when he raised his head a gleam of light light Illusory as it often happens in dense Darkness swam before his eyes while he peered the sound of feeble knocking was repeated and suddenly he felt rather than saw the existence of a

massive obstacle in his path what was it the spur of a hill or was it a house yes it was a house right close as though it had risen from the ground or had come gliding to meet him dumb and palid from some dark dark recess of the night it towered loftily he had come up under its Lee another three steps and he could have touched the wall with his hand it was no doubt a pada and some other traveler was trying for admittance he heard again the sound of cautious knocking next moment a broad

band of light fell into the night through the open door burn stepped eagerly into it whereupon the person outside leaped with a stifled cry away into the night and exclamation of surprise was heard too from within burn flinging himself Against the half closed door forced his way in against some considerable resistance a miserable candle a mere Rush light burned at the end of a long deal table and in its light burn saw staggering yet the girl he had driven from the door she had a short black skirt an orange Shaw a dark complexion and the

escaped single hairs from the Mass somber and thick like a forest and held up by a comb made a black mist about her low forehead a shrill Lamentable howl of Misericordia came in two voices from the further end of the long room where the fight of an Open Hearth played between heavy Shadows the girl recovering herself drew a hissing breath through her set teeth it is unnecessary to report the long process of questions and answers by which he soothed the fears of two old women who sat on each side of the fire on which stood

a large Earth andwar pot Barn thought at once of Two Witches watching The Brewing of some deadly potion but all the same when one of them raising forward painfully her broken form lifted the cover of the pot the escaping steam had an appetizing smell the other did not budge but sat hunched up her head trembling all the time they were horrible there was something grotesque in their decrepitude their toothless mouths their hooked noses the meagerness of the active one and the hanging yellow cheeks of the other the still one whose Head trembled would have been

laughable if the sight of their Dreadful physical degradation had not been appalling to one's eyes had not gripped one's heart with poignant amazement at the Unspeakable misery of age at the awful persistency of Life becoming at last an object of disgust and Dread to get over it burn began to talk saying that he was an Englishman and that he was in search of a countryman who ought to have passed this way directly he had spoken the Recollection of his parting with Tom came up in his mind with amazing vividness the silent villagers the angry gnome

the oneeyed wine seller Bernardino why these two unspeakable frights must be that man's aunts Affiliated to the devil whatever they had been once it was impossible to imagine what use such feeble creatures could be to the devil now in the world of the living which was Lucilla and which was her minia they were now things Without A Name a moment of suspended animation followed Burn's words the Sorceress with the spoon ceased stirring the mess in the iron pot the very trembling of the other's head stopped for the space of breath in this infinitesimal fraction of

a second burn had the sense of being really on his quest of having reached the turn of the path almost within hail of Tom they have seen him he thought with conviction here was at last somebody who had seen him he Made sure they would deny all knowledge of the Les but on the contrary they were eager to tell him that he had eaten and slept the night in the house they both started talking together describing his appearance and behavior an excitement quite fierce in its feebleness possessed them the doubled up sourc flourished aoft her

wooden spoon the puffy monster got off her stool and screeched stepping from one foot to the other while the trembling of her head was accelerated to Positive vibration burn was quite disconcerted by their excited Behavior yes the big Fierce Les went away in the morning after eating a piece of bread and drinking some wine and if the cabalero wished to follow the same path nothing could be easier in the morning you will give me somebody to show me the way said burn saigh seor a proper youth the man the cabalero saw going out but he

was knocking at the door protested burn he only bolted when He saw me he was coming in no no the two horrid witches screamed out together going out going out after all it may have been true the sound of knocking had been faint elusive reflected burn perhaps only the effect of his fancy he asked who is that man her noio they screamed pointing to the girl he has gone home to a village far away from here but he will return in the morning her novio and she is an orphan the child of poor Christian people

she lives with Us for the love of God for the love of God the orphan crouching on the corner of the Hearth had been looking at burn he thought that she was more like a child child of Satan kept there by these two weird herodin For the Love of the devil her eyes were a little oblique her mouth rather thick but admirably formed her dark face had a wild beauty voluptuous and Untamed as to the character of her steadfast gaze attached upon him with a sensuously Savage Attention to know what it was like says Mr

burn you have only to observe a Hungry Cat watching a bird in a cage or a mouse inside a trap it was she who served him the food of which he was glad though with those big slanting black eyes examining him at close range as if he had something curious written on his face she gave him an uncomfortable sensation but anything was better than being approached by these bler eyed nightmarish witches his Apprehensions somehow had been soothed perhaps by the sensation of warmth after severe exposure and the ease of resting after the exertion of Fire

fighting the Gale inch by inch all the way he had no doubt of Tom's safety he was now sleeping in the mountain camp having been met by Gonzalez's men burn Rose filled a tin goblet with wine out of a skin hanging on the wall and sat down again the witch with the mummy face began to talk to him rambling of Old Times she boasted of the in's Fame in those better days great people in their own coaches stopped there an Archbishop slept once once in the cassa a long long time ago the witch with the

puffy face seemed to be listening from her stool motionless except for the trembling of her head the girl burn was certain she was a casual Gypsy admitted there for some reason or other sat on the Hearthstone in the glow of the Embers she hummed a tune to herself rattling a Pair of castets slightly now and then At The Mention Of The Archbishop she chuckled impiously and turned her head to look at burn so that the red R glow of the fire flashed in her black eyes and on her white teeth under the dark cowl of

the enormous overmantle and he smiled at her he rested now in the ease of security his Advent not having been expected there could be no plot against him in existence drowsiness stole upon his Senses he enjoyed it but keeping a hold so he thought at least on his wits but he must have been gone further than he thought because he was startled Beyond measure by a fish uproar he had never heard anything so pitilessly strident in his life The Witches had started a fierce quarrel about something or other whatever its origin they were now only

abusing each other violently without arguments their scile screams expressed nothing but Wicked anger and ferocious Dismay the Gypsy girl's black eyes flew from one to the other never before had burn felt himself so removed from fellowship with human beings before he had really time to understand the subject of the quarrel the girl jumped up rattling her cter Nets loudly a silence fell she came up to the table and bending over her eyes in his Senor she said with decision you shall sleep in the archbishop's room neither of the witches objected the Dried up one bent

double was propped on a stick the puffy faed one had now a crutch burn got up walked to the door and turning the key in the enormous lock put it cooly in his pocket this was clearly the only entrance and he did not mean to be taken unawares by whatever danger there might have been lurking outside when he turned from the door he saw the Two Witches Affiliated to the devil and the satanic girl looking at him in silence he wondered if Tom Corbin Took the same precaution last might and thinking of him he had

again that queer impression of his nearness the world was perfectly dumb and in this Stillness he heard the blood beating in his ears with a confused rushing noise in which there seemed to be a voice uttering the words Mr burn look out sir tomk voice he shuddered for the delusions of the senses of hearing are the most Vivid of all and from their nature have a compelling character it seemed Impossible that Tom should not be there again a slight chill as of stealthy draft penetrated through his very clothes and passed over all his body he

shook off the impression with an effort it was the girl who preceded him upstairs carrying an iron lamp from the naked flame of which ascended a thin thread of smoke her soiled white stockings were full of holes with the same quiet resolution with which he had locked the door below burn threw open One after another the doors in the corridor all the rooms were empty except for some nondescript Lumber in one or two and the girl seeing what he would be at stopped every time raising the Smoky light in each doorway patiently meantime she observed

him with sustained attention the last door of all she threw open herself you sleep here seor she murmured in a voice light like a child's breath offering him the lamp buenos noes senorita he said politely taking it from Her she didn't return turn the wish audibly though her lips did move a little while her gaze black like a starless night never for a moment wavered before him he stepped in and as he turned to close the door she was still there motionless and disturbing with her voluptuous mouth and slanting eyes with the expression of expectant

sensual ferocity of a baffled cat he hesitated for a moment and in the dumb house he heard again the blood pulsating Ponderously in his ears while once once more the illusion of Tom's voice speaking earnestly somewhere nearby was specially terrifying because this time he could not make out the words he slammed the door in the girl's face at last leaving her in the dark and he opened it again almost on the instant nobody she had vanished without the slightest sound he closed the door quickly and bolted it with two heavy bolts a profound mistrust possessed

him Suddenly why did the witch's quarrel about letting him sleep here and what meant that stare of the girl as if she wanted to impress his features forever in her mind his own nervousness alarmed him he seemed to himself to be removed very far from mankind he examined his room it was not very high just high enough to take the bed which stood under an enormous balquin like canopy from which fell heavy curtains at foot and head a bed certainly worthy of an Archbishop there was a heavy table carved all around the edges some armchairs

of enormous weight like The Spoils of a Grande's Palace a tall shallow wardrobe placed against the wall and with double doors he tried them locked a suspicion came into his mind and he snatched the lamp to make a closer examination no it was not a disguised entrance that heavy tall piece of furniture stood clear of the wall by quite an inch he glanced at the bolts of His room room door no no one could get at him treacherously while he slept but would he be able to sleep he asked himself anxiously if only he had

Tom there the trusty Seaman who had fed his right hand in a cutting out Affair or two and had always preached to him the necessity to take care of himself for it's no great trick he used to say to get yourself killed in a hot fight any fool can do that the proper Pastime is to fight the Frenchies and then live to Fight another day burn found it a hard matter not to fall into listening to the silence somehow he had the conviction that nothing would break it unless he heard Again The Haunting sound of

Tom's voice he had heard it twice before odd and yet no wonder he argued with himself reasonably since he had been thinking of the man for over 30 hours continuously and what's more inconclusively for his anxiety for Tom had never taken a definite shape Disappear was the only word connected with the idea of Tom's danger it was very vague and awful disappear what did that mean burn shuddered and then said to himself that he must be a little feverish but Tom had not disappeared burn had just heard of him and again the young man felt

the blood beating in his ears he sat still expecting every moment to hear through the pulsating Strokes the sound of Tom's voice he waited straining his ears but Nothing came suddenly the thought occurred to him he has not disappeared but he could not make himself heard he jumped up from the armchair how absurd laying his pistol and his hanger on the table he took off his boots and feeling suddenly too tired to stand flung himself on the bed which he found soft and comfortable Beyond his hopes he had felt very wakeful but he must have

dozed off off after all because the next thing he knew he was sitting up in bed and Trying to recollect what it was that Tom's voice had said oh he remembered it now it had said Mr burn look out sir a warning this but against what he landed with one Leap in the middle of the floor gasped once then looked all around the room the window was shuted and barred with an iron bar again he ran his eyes slowly all round on the bare walls and even looked up at the ceiling which was rather High

afterwards he went to the door to examine the fastenings they Consisted of two enormous iron bolts sliding into holes made in the wall and as the corridor outside was too narrow to admit of any battering Arrangement or even to permit an axe to be swung nothing could burst the door open unless gunpowder but while he was still making sure that the lower bolt was pushed well home he received the impression of somebody's presence in the room it was so strong that he spun round quicker than lightning there was no one who Could there be and

yet it was then that he lost the decorum and restraint a man keeps up for his own sake he got down on his hands and knees with the lamp on the floor to look under the bed like a silly girl he saw a lot of dust and nothing else he got up his cheeks burning and walked about discontented with own behavior and unreasonably angry with Tom for not leaving him alone the words Mr burn look out sir kept on repeating themselves in his head in a tone of Warning hadn't I better just throw myself on

the bed and try to go to sleep he asked himself but his eyes fell on the tall wardrobe and he went towards it feeling irritated with himself and yet unable to desist how he could explain tomorrow the bious misdeed to the two ious witches he had no idea nevertheless he inserted the point of his hanger between the two halves of the door and tried to prize them open they resisted he swore sticking now hotly to his Purpose his mutter I hope you will be satisfied confound you was addressed to the absent Tom just then the

doors gave way and flew open he was there he the trusty sagacious and courageous Tom was there drawn up shadowy and stiff in a prudent silence which his wide open eyes by their fixed gleam seemed to command burn to respect but burn was too startled to make a sound amazed he stepped back a little and on the instant the Seaman flung himself forward head Long as if to clasp his officer around the neck instinctively burn put out his faltering arms he felt the horrible rigidity of the body and then the coldness of death as their

heads knocked together and their faces came into contct they reeled burn hugging Tom close to his breast in order not to let him fall with a crash he had just strength enough to lower the awful burden gently to the floor then his head swam his legs gave way and he sank on His knees leaning over the body with his hands resting on the breast of that man once full of generous life and now as insensible as a stone dead my poor Tom dead he repeated mentally the light of the lamp standing near the edge of

the table fell from above straight on the Stony empty stair of these eyes which naturally had a mobile and merry expression burn turned his own away from them Tom's black silk neckerchief was not knotted on his Breast it was gone the murderers had also taken off his shoes and stockings and noticing this spoliation the exposed throat the bare upturned feet burn felt his eyes run full of tears in other respects the Seaman was fully dressed neither was his clothing disarranged as it must have been in a violent struggle only his checked shirt had been pulled

a little out the waistband in one place just enough to ascertain whether he had a money belt fastened round his body Burn began to sob into his handkerchief it was a nervous Outburst which passed off quickly remaining on his knees he contemplated sadly the athletic body of as fine as demon as ever had drawn a cutas laid a gun or passed the weather earring in a gale lying stiff and cold his cheery Fearless Spirit departed perhaps turning to him his boy Chum to his ship out there rolling on the gray Seas off an Ironbound Coast

at the very moment of its flight he perceived that The six brass buttons of Tom's jacket had been cut off he shuddered at the notion of the two miserable and repulsive witches busying themselves G foolishly about the defenseless body of his friend cut off perhaps with the same knife which the head of one trembled the other was bent double and their eyes were red and bled their Infamous claws unsteady it must have been in this very room too for Tom could not have been killed in the open and brought in here Afterwards of that burn

was certain yet those devilish Crohns could not have killed him themselves even by taking him him unawares and Tom would be always on his guard of course Tom was a very wide awake weary man when engaged on any service and in fact how did they murder him who did in what way burn jumped up snatched the lamp off the table and stooped swiftly over the body the light revealed on the clothing no stain no Trace no spot of blood anywhere Burn's Hands began to shake so that he had to set the lamp on the floor

and turn away his head in order to recover from this agitation then he began to explore that cold still and rigid body for a stab a gunshot wound for the trace of some killing blow he felt all over the skull anxiously it was whole He Slipped his hand under the neck it was unbroken with terrified eyes he peered close under the chin and saw no marks of strangulation on the throat there were no signs Anywhere he was just dead impulsively burn got away from the body as if the mystery of an incomprehensible death had changed

his pity into suspicion and dread the lamp on the floor near the set still face of the Seaman showed its staring at the ceiling as if despairingly in the circle of light burn saw by the undisturbed patches of thick dust on the floor that there had be no struggle in that room he has died Outside he thought yes outside in that narrow Corridor where there was hardly room to turn the mysterious death had come to his poor dear Tom the impulse of snatching up his pistols and rushing out of the room abandoned burn suddenly for

Tom too had been armed with just such powerless weapons as he himself possessed pistols a cutless and Tom had died a nameless death by incomprehensible means a new thought Came to burn that stranger knocking at the door and fleeing so swiftly at his appearance had come there to remove the body aha that was the guide the withered witch had promised would show the English officer the shortest way of rejoining his man a promise he saw it now of dreadful import he who had knocked would have two bodies to deal with man and officer would go

forth from the house together for burn was certain now that he would have to die before the Morning and in the same mysterious manner leaving behind him an unmarked body the sight of a smashed head of a throat cut of a gaping gunshot wound would have been an inexpressible relief it would have soothed all his fears his soul cried within him to that dead man whom he had never found wanting in danger why don't you tell me what I am to look for Tom why don't you but in rigid immobility extended on his back he

seemed to preserve an aere silence as if Disdaining in the finality of his awful knowledge to hold converse with the living suddenly burn flung himself on his knees by the side of the body and dry-eyed fierce opened the shirt wide on the breast as if to tear the secret forcibly from that cold heart which had been so loyal to him in life nothing nothing he raised the lamp and all the sign vouch safe to him by that face which used to be so kindly in expression was a small bruise on the forehead the Least thing

a mere Mark the skin even was not broken he stared at it a long time as if lost in a dreadful dream then he observed that Tom's hands were clenched as though he had fallen facing somebody in a fight with fists his knuckles on close of view appeared somewhat abided both hands the discovery of these slight signs was more appalling to burn than the absolute absence of every mark would have been so Tom had died striking against something which Could be hit and yet could kill one without leaving a wound by a breath Terror hot

Terror began to play about Burn's Heart Like a tongue of flame that touches and withdraws before it turns a thing to ashes he backed away from the body as far as he could then came forward stealthily casting fearful glances to steal another look at the bruised forehead there would perhaps be such a faint bruise on his own forehead before the morning I can't bear it he Whispered to himself Tom was for him now an object of horror a sight at once tempting and revolting to his fear he couldn't bear to look at him at last

desperation getting the better of his increasing horror he stepped forward from the wall against which he had been leaning seized the corpse under the armpits and began to Lug it over to the bed the bare heels of the Seaman trailed on the floor noiselessly he was Heavy with the dead weight of inanimate Objects with a last effort burn landed him face downwards on the edge of the bed rolled him over snatched from under this stiff passive thing a sheet with which he covered it over then he spread the curtains at head and foot so that

joining together as he shook their folds they hid the bed all together from his sight he stumbled towards a chair and fell on it the perspiration poured from his face for a moment and then his veins seemed to carry for a while a thin Stream of half Frozen blood complete Terror had possession of him now a nameless Terror which had turned his heart to ashes he sat upright in the straight back chair the lamp burning At His Feet his pistols and his hanger at his left elbow on the end of the table his eyes turning

incessantly in their sockets round the walls over the ceiling over the floor in the expectation of a mysterious and appalling Vision the thing which could deal death in a breath Was outside that bolted door but burn believed neither in walls nor bolts now unreasoning Terror turning everything to account his oldtime boyish admiration of the athletic Tom the undaunted Tom he had seemed to him Invincible helped to paralyze his faculties added to his despair he was no longer Edgar burn he was a tortured Soul suffering more anguish than any Sinner's body had ever suffered from Rack

or boot the depth of his torment may be measured when I say That this young man as Brave at least as the average of his kind contemplated seizing a pistol and firing into his own head but a deadly chilly Langer was spreading over his limbs it was as if his flesh had been wet plaster stiffening slowly about his ribs presently he thought the two witches will be coming in with crutch and stick horrible grotesque monstrous Affiliated to the devil to put a mark on his forehead the tiny little bruise of death And he wouldn't be

able to do anything Tom had struck out at something but he was not like Tom his limbs were dead already he sat still dying the death over and over again and the only part of him which moved were his eyes turning round and round in their sockets running over the walls the floor the ceiling again and again till suddenly they became motionless and Stony starting out of his head fixed in the direction of the bed he had seen the heavy curtains Stir and Shake as if the dead body they concealed had turned over and sat

up burn who thought the world could hold no more terrors in store felt his hair stir at the roots he G R the arms of the chair his jaw fell and the sweat broke out on his brow while his dry tongue clo suddenly to the roof of his mouth again the curtain stirred but did not open Don't Tom burn made effort to shout but all he heard was a slight moan such as an uneasy sleeper may make he felt that His brain was going for now it seemed to him that the ceiling over the bed

had moved had slanted and came level again and once more the closed curtains swayed gently as if about to part burn closed his eyes not to see the awful Apparition of the Seaman's corpse coming out animated by an evil spirit in the profound Silence of the room he endured a moment of frightful Agony then opened his eyes again and he saw at once that the curtains remained closed still but That the ceiling over the bed had risen quite a foot with the last gleam of Reas left to him he understood that it was the enormous

balquin over the bed which was coming down while the curtains attached to it swayed softly sinking gradually to the floor his drooping jaw snapped too and half rising in his chair he watched mutely The noiseless Descent of the Monstrous canopy it came down in short smooth rushes till lowered halfway or more when it took a run and settled Swiftly its turtleback shape with the Deep border piece fitting exactly the edge of the bedstead a slight crack or two of wood were heard and the overpowering Stillness of the room resumed its sway burn stood up gasped

for breath and let out a cry of rage and dismay the first sound which he is perfectly certain did make its way past his lips on this night of Terrors this then was the death he had escaped this was the devilish artifice Of murder poor Tom's Soul had perhaps tried from Beyond the border to warn him of for this was how he had died burn was certain he had heard the voice of the Seaman faintly distinct in his familiar phrase Mr burn look out sir and again uttering words he could not make out but then

the distance separating the living from the dead is so great Poor Tom had tried burn ran to the bed and attempted to lift up to push off the horrible lid smothering the body it resisted his Efforts heavy as lead immovable like a tombstone The Rage of Vengeance made him desist his head buzzed with chaotic thoughts of extermination he turned around the room as if he could find neither his weapons nor the way out and all the time he stammered awful menaces a violent battering at the door of the Inn recalled him to his soberer senses

he flew to the window pulled the shutters open and looked out in the faint Dawn he saw below him a mob of men Ha he would go and face at once this murderous lot collected no doubt for his undoing after his struggle with nameless Terrors he yearned for an open Fray with armed enemies but he must have remained yet bereft of his reason because forgetting his weapons he rushed downstairs with a wild cry unbar the door while blows were raining on it outside and flinging it open blew with his bare hands at the throat of

the first man he saw before him they rolled Over together Burn's hazy intention was to break through to fly up the mountain path and come back presently with Gonzalez's men to exact an exemplary Vengeance he fought furiously till a tree a house a mountain seemed to crash down upon his head and he knew no more here Mr burn describes in detail the skillful manner in which he found his broken head bandaged informs us that he had lost a great deal of blood and ascribes the preservation of his sanity To that circumstance he sets down Gonzalez

profuse apologies in full too for it was Gonzalez who tired of waiting for news from the English had come down to the Inn with half his band on his way to the Sea his Excellency he explained rushed out with Fierce impetuosity and moreover was not known to us for a friend and so we it's etc etc when asked what had become of the witches he only pointed his finger silently to the ground then voiced calmly a moral Reflection the passion for gold is pitiless in the very old seya he said no doubt in former days

they have put many a solitary traveler to sleep in the archbishop's bed there was also a gypsy girl there said burn feebly from the improvised litter on which he was being carried to the coast by a squad of gueros it was she who winched up that infernal machine and it was she too who lowered it that night was the answer but Why why exclaimed burn why should she wish for my death no doubt for the sake of your excellency's coat buttons said politely the sattin Gonzalez we found those of the Dead Mariner concealed on her

person but your Excellency May rest assured that everything that is fitting has been done on this occasion burn asked no more questions there was still another death which was considered by Gonzalez as fitting to the occasion the oneeyed Bernardino stuck Against the wall of his wine shop received the charge of six escapas into his breast as the shots rang out the rough beer with Tom's body on it went past carried by a Bandit likee Gang of Spanish Patriots down the Ravine to the shore where two boats from the ship were waiting for what was left

on Earth of her best Seaman Mr burn very pale and weak stepped into the boat which carried the body of his humble friend for it was decided that Tom Corbin should rest far Out in the Bay of bisque the officer took the tiller and turning his head for the last look at the shore saw on the gray Hillside something moving which he made out to be a little man in a yellow hat mounted on a mule that mule without which the fate of Tom Corbin would have remained mysterious forever [Music] oh