hen I sat down close by trying to screen it
with my coat. But do what I would the wind came gusting round the corner,
blowing the flame to one side, and making the candle gutter as another
candle guttered on that black day at the Why Not? And so thought whisked
round till I saw Maskew's face wearing a look of evil triumph, when the
pin fell at the auction, and again his face grew deadly pale, and there
was the bullet-mark on his brow.

Surely there were evil spirits in this place to lead my thoughts so much
astray, and then there came to my mind that locket on my neck, which men
had once hung round Blackbeard's to scare evil spirits from his tomb. If
it could frighten them from him, might it not rout them now, and make
them fly from me? And with that thought I took the parchment out, and
opening it before the flickering light, although I knew all, word for
word, conned it over again, and read it out aloud. It was a relief to
hear a human voice, even though 'twas nothing but my own, and I took to
shouting the words, having much ado even so to make them heard for the
raging of the storm:

'The days of our age are threescore years and ten; and though men be so
strong that they come to fourscore years: yet is their strength then but
labour and sorrow; so soon passeth it away, and we are gone.

'And as for me, my feet were almost ...'

At the 'almost' I stopped, being brought up suddenly with a fierce beat
of blood through my veins, and a jump fit to burst them, for I had heard
a scuffling noise in the passage that led to the cave, as if someone had
stumbled against a loose stone in the dark. I did not know then, but have
learnt since, that where there is a loud noise, such as the roaring of a
cascade, the churning of a mill, or, as here, the rage and bluster of a
storm--if there arise some different sound, even though it be as slight
as the whistle of a bird, 'twill strike the ear clear above the general
din. And so it was this night, for I caught that stumbling tread even
when the gale blew loudest, and sat motionless and breathless, in my
eagerness of listening, and then the gale lulled an instant, and I heard
the slow beat of footsteps as of one groping his way down the passage in
the dark. I knew it was not Elzevir, for first he could not be back from
Poole for many hours yet, and second, he always whistled in a certain way
to show 'twas he coming and gave besides a pass-word; yet, if not
Elzevir, who could it be? I