othes. Still no cry, nor
any appeal for mercy; no, not from the time he lit the fire till a
horrible rattle come down, which was the last twitches of somethin' that
choked and died on the sooty gratin' above.

"When all was quiet, Dignum he knocks with his foot on the floor and sits
hisself down before the hearth, with a face like a pillow for innocence.

"'I were chilled and lit it,' says he to the landlord. 'You don't mind?'

"Mind? Who would have ventur'd to cross Dark Dignum's fancies?

"He give a boisterous laugh, and ordered in a double noggin of humming
stuff.

"'Here,' he says, when it comes, 'is to the health of Exciseman Jones,
that swore to bring me to the ground.'

"'To the ground,' mutters a thick voice from the chimney.

"'My God!' says the landlord--'there's something up there!'

"Something there was; and terrible to look upon when they brought it to
light. The creature's struggles had ground the sut into its face, and its
nails were black below the quick.

"Were those words the last of its death-throe, or an echo from beyond?
Ah! we may question; but they were heard by two men.

"Dignum went free. What could they prove agen him? Not that he knew there
was aught in the chimney when he lit the fire. The other would scarcely
have acquent him of his plans. And Exciseman Jones was hurried into his
grave alongside the church up here.

"And therein he lay for twenty year, despite that, not a twelvemonth
after his coming, the sacrilegious house itself sunk roaring into the
waters. For the Lord would have none of it, and, biding His time, struck
through a fortnight of deluge, and hurled church and cliff into ruin. But
the yard remained, and, nighest the seaward edge of it, Exciseman Jones
slept in his fearful winding sheet and bided _his_ time.

"It came when my grandfather were a young man of thirty, and mighty close
and confidential with Dark Dignum. God forgive him! Doubtless he were
led away by the older smuggler, that had a grace of villainy about him,
'tis said, and used Lord Chesterfield's printed letters for wadding to
his bullets.

"By then he was a ramping, roaring devil; but, for all his bold hands
were stained with crime, the memory of Exciseman Jones and of his promise
dwelled with him and darkened him ever more and more, and never left him.
So those that knew him said.

"Now all these years the cliff edge agen the graveyard, where it was
broke off, was scabbing into the sea below. Bu