im twict. I was mad. Said I'd stay right
there an' hunt that dern partridge till ther Eastern Bay froze over, but
I'd git the thing. Arter a while I couldn't fin' him at all, but I kept
prowlin' round in the woods till it was beginnin' to git dark. I heard
somethin' like a rustlin' under some cedars and saw somethin' move. Then
I ups and fires. When I done that there was a yell that might have been
heard clean down to ther Hosses. Out of them cedars came a critter that
I swan was the old devil him own self! He had horns, an' he had a fiery
face and hands, an' he had black holes fer eyes, jest as Jeb told it,
and he had a red-hot spear of iron in his hand. He run at me to stick
that spear inter me. I know he was goin' to spear me and then kerry me
down below fer shootin' partridges Sunday. He waren't more'n six feet of
me when I poked out my old gun an' fired the second barrel right inter
his face and eyes. It never bothered him a bit. Run? Why, I flew! Never
kivered ground so fast before, an' I never 'spect to ag'in. I bet
sometimes I jumped as much as fifteen feet to a leap."

The speaker took out a dirty handkerchief and mopped the big drops of
perspiration off his face. He was shaking with excitement, and his eyes
gleamed. He showed every symptom of extreme terror as he related the
story, and it seemed plain enough that he believed every word he was
uttering.

"Go on!" cried several.

"I don't know how I ever got away," said the hunchback, huskily. "I do
know that monster was chasin' me right through the woods, tryin' to ram
his spear inter my back as if I was a flounder an' he was arter lobster
bait. I managed to hold onter my old gun, though at the time I didn't
know I was a-doin' of it. If I hed stopped ter think, I'd throwed the
gun erway. When I came out ter ther bank nigh ter whar my dory was
hitched, I made a jump that took me clean from ther top to ther bottom.
It seems as if right when I was in ther air I thought how that bo't was
tied with her painter, an' I rammed my hand inter my pocket fer my
knife. When I got ter ther boat I had the knife in my hand. I flung ther
gun in an' yanked open ther knife jest as ther critter came down over
ther bank arter me, an' he sailed down where I had jumped. I saw him do
it, and I know he spread out some red things like wings. I don't say
they was wings, but they looked like wings. I yanked open my knife and I
cut the painter. The tide was in, and the dory was afloat, w