He is only stunned a little.
Look, he flutters his wings, we will let him go--like that! But he was
sent to this house because there is something here to be confessed.
What is it?"

By this time my father was disturbed, and the trouble was getting on
top of the joy in his soul. So he pulled the ring out of his vest and
laid it on the table under the lamp. The gold glittered, and the stone
sparkled, and he saw that her eyes grew large as she looked at it.

"See," he said, "this is the good fortune that the waves brought me on
the way home from _La Trinite_. It is a heritage for our baby that is
coming."

"The waves!" she cried, shrinking back a little. "How could the waves
bring a heavy thing like that? It would sink."

"It was floating," he answered, casting about in his mind for a good
lie; "it was floating--about two miles this side of the _Point du
Caribou_--it was floating on a piece of----"

At that moment there was another blow on the window, and something
pounded and scratched against the glass. Both of them were looking
this time, and again my father saw the hand without the little
finger--but my mother could see only a blur and a movement.

He was terrified, and fell on his knees praying. She trembled a
little, but stood over him brave and stern.

"What is it that you have seen," said she; "tell me, what has made you
afraid?"

"A hand," he answered, very low, "a hand on the window."

"A hand!" she cried, "then there must be some one waiting outside. You
must go and let him in."

"Not I," whispered he, "I dare not."

Then she looked at him hard, and waited a minute. She opened the door,
peered out, trembled again, crossed the threshold, and returned with
the body of a blackbird.

"Look," she cried, "another messenger of God--his heart is beating a
little. I will put him here where it is warm--perhaps he will get well
again. But there is a curse coming upon this house. Confess. What is
this about hands?"

So he was moved and terrified to open his secret half-way.

"On the rocks this side of the point," he stammered, "as I was sailing
very slowly--there was something white--the arm and hand of a
man--this ring on one of the fingers. Where was the man? Drowned and
lost. What did he want of the ring? It was easy to pull it----"

As he said this, there was a crash at the window. The broken pane
tinkled upon the floor. In the opening they both saw, for a moment, a
hand with the little finger cut o