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 uncanny 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