stand, not having souls that religion would
be any use to. It was the old woman told Anthony that after, and you'd
think it would have been a warning to him not to make or meddle with the
like of them any more. But it only made him the more determined. He went
about without speaking to man or woman, and if anybody spoke to him he'd
curse terrible, till the time of the next spring tide. Then he was off
to the bay again, and sure enough them ones was there. The water was
middling rough that night, but it didn't daunt Anthony. It pleased him,
for he thought he'd have a better chance of getting to the rocks without
them taking notice of him if there was some noise loud enough to drown
the noise he'd be making himself. So he crept out to the point of the
cliff on the south side of the bay, which is as near as he could get to
the rocks. You remember that?"

I did. On the night when we beat out of the bay against a rising
westerly wind we went about once under the shadow of the cliff, and,
almost before we had full way on the boat, stayed her again beside the
rocks. Anthony's swim, though terrifying, was short.

"That time he neither blessed himself nor said a prayer, but slipped
into the water, and off with him, swimming with all his strength. They
didn't see him, for they were too busy with their playing to take much
notice, and of course they couldn't be expecting a man to be there.
Without Anthony had shouted they wouldn't have heard him, for the sea
was loud on the rocks and their own singing was louder. So Anthony got
there and he crept up on the rock behind them, and the first thing his
hand touched was one of the cloaks. He didn't know which of them it
belonged to, and he didn't care. It wasn't any one of the three in
particular he wanted, for they were all much about the same to look at,
only finer than any woman ever was seen. So he rolled the cloak round
his neck, the way he'd have his arms free for swimming, and back with
him into the water, heading for shore as fast as he was able."

"And she followed him?" I asked.

"She did so. From that day till the day she left him she followed him,
and she did what she was bid, only for one thing. She wouldn't go to
mass, and when the chapel bell rang she'd hide herself. The sound of it
was what she couldn't bear. The people thought that queer, and there
was a deal of talk about it in the bland, some saying she must be a
Protestant, and more thinking that she might be some