he knew not then why. They went down to the tide, which was
moving out very fast, and left but an inch or two of water on the
sands. There was but a little light, but, when they had walked a
little, they saw the black hull of a ship before them, on the edge of
the deeper water, the waves driving over it; and then all at once they
came upon the body of a man lying on his face on the sand. There was
no sign of life in him, but he clasped a bag in his hand that was
heavy, and the pocket of his coat was full to bulging; and there lay,
moreover, some glittering things about him that seemed to be coins.
They lifted the body up, and his father stripped the coat off from the
man, and then bade Henry dig a hole in the sand, which he presently
did, though the sand and water oozed fast into it. Then his father,
who had been stooping down, gathering somewhat up from the sand,
raised the body up, and laid it in the hole, and bade Henry cover it
with the sand. And so he did till it was nearly hidden. Then came a
horrible thing; the sand in the hole began to move and stir, and
presently a hand was put out with clutching fingers; and Henry had
dropped the spade, and said, "There is life in him," but his father
seized the spade, and shovelled the sand into the hole with a kind of
silent fury, and trampled it over and smoothed it down--and then he
gathered up the coat and the bag, and handed Henry the spade. By this
time the town was astir, and they saw, very faintly, a man run along
the shore eastward; so, making a long circuit to the west, they
returned; his father had put the spade away and taken the coat
upstairs; and then he went out with Henry, and told all he could find
that there was a wreck ashore.

The priest heard the story with a fierce shame and anger, and turning
to Henry he said, "But why did you not resist your father, and save
the poor sailor?" "I dared not," said Henry shuddering, "though I
would have done so if I could; but my father has a power over me, and
I am used to obey him." Then said the priest, "This is a dark matter.
But you have told the story bravely, and now will I shrive you, my
son." So he gave him shrift. Then he said to Henry, "And have you seen
aught that would connect the beast that visits you with this thing?"
"Ay, that I have," said Henry, "for I watched it with my father skip
and leap in the water over the place where the man lies buried." Then
the priest said, "Your father must tell me the tale t