The moon was rising, and besides there was that curious
sheen from the sea which you will often notice in spring. The

glow was maybe a hundred yards distant, a little spark of fire I
could have put in my cap, and, from its crackling and smoke,

composed of dry seaweed and half-green branches from the
burnside thickets. A man's figure stood near it, and as we

looked it moved round and round the fire in circles which first
of all widened and then contracted.

The sight was so unexpected, so beyond the beat of our
experience, that we were all a little scared. What could this

strange being want with a fire at half-past eight of an April
Sabbath night on the Dyve Burn sands? We discussed the

thing in whispers behind a boulder, but none of us had any
solution. 'Belike he's come ashore in a boat,' said Archie. 'He's

maybe a foreigner.' But I pointed out that, from the tracks
which Archie himself had found, the man must have come

overland down the cliffs. Tam was clear he was a madman,
and was for withdrawing promptly from the whole business.

But some spell kept our feet tied there in that silent world of
sand and moon and sea. I remember looking back and seeing

the solemn, frowning faces of the cliffs, and feeling somehow
shut in with this unknown being in a strange union. What kind

of errand had brought this interloper into our territory? For a
wonder I was less afraid than curious. I wanted to get to the

heart of the matter, and to discover what the man was up to
with his fire and his circles.

The same thought must have been in Archie's head, for he
dropped on his belly and began to crawl softly seawards. I

followed, and Tam, with sundry complaints, crept after my
heels. Between the cliffs and the fire lay some sixty yards of

debris and boulders above the level of all but the high spring
tides. Beyond lay a string of seaweedy pools and then the hard

sands of the burnfoot. There was excellent cover among the
big stones, and apart from the distance and the dim light, the

man by the fire was too preoccupied in his task to keep much
look-out towards the land. I remember thinking he had chosen

his place well, for save from the sea he could not be seen. The
cliffs are so undercut that unless a watcher on the coast were

on their extreme edge he would not see the burnfoot sands.
Archie, the skilled tracker, was the one who all but betrayed

us. His knee slipped on the seaweed, and he rolled off a
boulder, bringing down with him a clatter of small stones. We

lay as still as mice, in terror lest the man should have heard the
noise and have come to look for the cause. By-and-by when I

ventured to raise my head above a flat-topped stone I saw that
he was undisturbed. The fire still burned, and he was pacing

round it.
On the edge of the pools was an outcrop of red sandstone

much fissured by the sea. Here was an excellent vantage-
ground, and all three of us curled behind it, with our eyes just

over the edge. The man was not twenty yards off, and I could
see clearly what manner of fellow he was. For one thing he was

huge of size, or so he seemed to me in the half-light. He wore
nothing but a shirt and trousers, and I could hear by the flap

of his feet on the sand that he was barefoot.
Suddenly Tam Dyke gave a gasp of astonishment. 'Gosh,

it's the black minister!' he said.
It was indeed a black man, as we saw when the moon came

out of a cloud. His head was on his breast, and he walked
round the fire with measured, regular steps. At intervals he

would stop and raise both hands to the sky, and bend his
body in the direction of the moon. But he never uttered a word.

'It's magic,' said Archie. 'He's going to raise Satan. We must
bide here and see what happens, for he'll grip us if we try to

go back. The moon's ower high.'
The procession continued as if to some slow music. I had

been in no fear of the adventure back there by our cave; but
now that I saw the thing from close at hand, my courage began

to ebb. There was something desperately" target="_blank" title="ad.绝望地；拼命地">desperatelyuncanny about this
great negro, who had shed his clerical garments, and was now

practising some strange magic alone by the sea. I had no doubt
it was the black art, for there was that in the air and the scene

which spelled the unlawful. As we watched, the circles
stopped, and the man threw something on the fire. A thick

smoke rose of which we could feel the aromatic scent, and
when it was gone the flame burned with a silvery blueness like

moonlight. Still no sound came from the minister, but he took
something from his belt, and began to make odd markings in

the sand between the inner circle and the fire. As he turned, the
moon gleamed on the implement, and we saw it was a great knife.

We were now scared in real earnest. Here were we, three boys,
at night in a lonely place a few yards from a savage with a knife.

The adventure was far past my liking, and even the intrepid
Archie was having qualms, if I could judge from his set face.

As for Tam, his teeth were chattering like a threshing-mill.
Suddenly I felt something soft and warm on the rock at my

right hand. I felt again, and, lo! it was the man's clothes.
There were his boots and socks, his minister's coat and his

minister's hat.
This made the predicament worse, for if we waited till he

finished his rites we should for certain be found by him. At
the same time, to return over the boulders in the bright

moonlight seemed an equally sure way to discovery. I whispered
to Archie, who was for waiting a little longer. 'Something

may turn up,' he said. It was always his way.
I do not know what would have turned up, for we had no

chance of testing it. The situation had proved too much for
the nerves of Tam Dyke. As the man turned towards us in his

bowings and bendings, Tam suddenly sprang to his feet and
shouted at him a piece of schoolboy rudeness then fashionable

in Kirkcaple.
'Wha called ye partan-face, my bonny man?' Then, clutching

his lantern, he ran for dear life, while Archie and I raced
at his heels. As I turned I had a glimpse of a huge figure, knife

in hand, bounding towards us.
Though I only saw it in the turn of a head, the face stamped

itself indelibly upon my mind. It was black, black as ebony,
but it was different from the ordinary negro. There were no

thick lips and flat nostrils; rather, if I could trust my eyes, the
nose was high-bridged, and the lines of the mouth sharp and

firm. But it was distorted into an expression of such a devilish
fury and amazement that my heart became like water.

We had a start, as I have said, of some twenty or thirty
yards. Among the boulders we were not at a great disadvantage,

for a boy can flit quickly over them, while a grown man
must pick his way. Archie, as ever, kept his wits the best of us.

'Make straight for the burn,' he shouted in a hoarse whisper;
we'll beat him on the slope.'

We passed the boulders and slithered over the outcrop of
red rock and the patches of sea-pink till we reached the

channel of the Dyve water, which flows gently among pebbles
after leaving the gully. Here for the first time I looked back

and saw nothing. I stopped involuntarily, and that halt was
nearly my undoing. For our pursuer had reached the burn

before us, but lower down, and was coming up its bank to cut