w landslip that had fallen from the churchyard. This landslip
(which had taken place since she had left home for her moonlight
walk) had changed the shape of the cove into a figure something like
the Greek epsilon.

I walked rapidly towards Flinty Point, which I should have to double
before I could reach the gangway I was to take. So feverishly
possessed had I become by the desire to prevent the sacrilege, if
possible, that I had walked some distance away from Winifred before I
observed how high the returning tide had risen in the cove.

When I now looked at Flinty Point, round which I was to turn, I saw
that it was already in deep water, and that I could not reach the
gangway outside the cove. It was necessary, therefore, to turn back
and ascend by the gangway Winifred was making for, behind Needle
Point, which did not project so far into the sea. So I turned back.
As I did so, I perceived that she had reached the projecting mass of
debris in the middle of the semicircle below the churchyard, and was
looking at it. Then I saw her stoop, pick up what seemed a paper
parcel, open it, and hold it near her face to trace out the letters
by the moonlight. Then I saw her give a start as she read it. I
walked towards her, and soon reached the landslip. Evidently what she
read agitated her much. She seemed to read it and re-read it. When
she saw me she put it behind her back, trying to conceal it from me.

'What have you picked up, Winifred?' I said, in much alarm; for my
heart told me that it was in some way connected with her father and
the shriek.

'Oh, Henry!' said she, 'I was in hopes you had not seen it. I am so
grieved for you. This parchment contains a curse written in large
letters. Some sacrilegious wretch has broken into the church and
stolen a cross placed in your father's tomb.'

God!--It was the very same parchment scroll from my father's tomb on
which was written the curse! I was struck dumb with astonishment and
dismay. The whole terrible truth of the situation broke in upon me at
one flash. The mysterious shriek was explained now. Wynne had
evidently broken open the tomb as soon as his daughter was out of the
way. He had then, in order to reach the cottage without running the
risk of being seen by a chance passenger on the Wilderness Road,
blundered about the edge of the cliff at the very moment when it was
giving way, and had fallen with it. It was his yell of despair amid
the noise of the landslip that W