irectly
upward, ever waving back and forth to the breath of the night wind.
Nor did this horrid figure remain one moment still. There upon the
very edge of the precipice, it would leap high into the air, flinging
aloft long gaunt arms, even appearing to float bodily forth into the
space above us, to disappear instantly, like some phantom of
imagination, amid the shrouding gloom of those rock shadows--flitting
swiftly, and as upon wings, along the crest; now showing directly in
our front, looming like a threatening giant, mocking with wild, furious
gestures; then dancing far to right or left, a vague shade in the
sheen, a mere nothing in the shadow, yet ever returning, the same
weird, unnatural, spectral figure, wildly gyrating upon the air,
leering down upon our speechless misery.

My eyes, wide-opened by terror, followed these movements, marking this
ghastly shape. I listened vainly for the slightest sound to connect it
with aught human. The mantle of the night's solemn silence, the dread
stillness of wilderness solitudes, rested everywhere. I heard the
mournful sighing of the wind amid jagged rocks and among the swaying
branches of the cedars; the dull roar of the little river, even the
stentorian breathing of the Puritan lying asleep behind us, but that
was all. That hideous apparition dancing so madly along the cliff
summit emitted no sound of foot or voice--yet there it hung, foreboding
evil, gesticulating in mockery; a being too hideous for earth, ever
playing the mad antics of a fiend.

My gaze rested questioningly upon De Noyan's upturned face, and saw it
ghost-like in lack of color, drawn and haggard. Mine no doubt was the
same, for never have I felt such uncontrollable horror as that which,
for the moment, fairly paralyzed me in brain and limb. It is the
mysterious that appals brave men, for who of earth might hope to
struggle against the very fiends of the air?

"_Mon Dieu_!" whispered my comrade, his voice shaking as if from an
ague fit. "Is it not Old Nick himself?"

"If not," I answered, my words scarce steadier, "then some one must
tell me what; never before did I gaze on such a sight. Has it been
there long?"

"I know not whence it came, or how. I was not watching the crest.
After I bathed at the stream to open my eyes better, I began
overhauling the commissary for a bite with which to refresh the inner
man. I was sitting yonder, my back against the big stone, munching
away contentedly,