s, for I fancied she had some ill-will towards me for not
complying with her wishes, but I did wonder at her coming now and
speaking to me in this familiar way. Nevertheless, I answered quietly:

"I thought I saw some one on the 'Devil's Tooth,' but I'm not sure."

"Ded 'ee zee a light jist now?" she continued.

"Yes, I did," I replied.

"Do 'ee knaw who made the light?"

"No," I replied. "I have been wondering what it meant."

"Iss, and you've bin tellin' Miss Ruth 'bout it, aint 'ee, Maaster
Roger? I'll tell 'ee what you've zid (seen). You've zid Betsey
Fraddam, my dear, and you do knaw what that do main."

"I know what foolish people say it means," I replied, "but I do not
know what it really means."

"Do'ant 'ee? But you will. 'Tis nearly come, Maaster Roger. You
defied and got vexed with they who would kip this from comin'; but 'tis
comin' now!"

"What's coming now?"

"Trewinion's curse," she screamed.

"You hag," I cried, aroused into a passion. "You have ill-wished me."

"Ill-wished 'ee? No, I ain't, and that you do knaw. We can't ill-wish
a eldest son; but the curse es comin', and that we could have kipt off."

"See there, see there!" she continued, pointing towards the great
forbidding-looking rock, "do 'ee zee the light? I can!"

Again I saw the flickering light on the rock between the great prongs,
and my flesh crept with fear.

"Ted'n too late, is it?" she said. "Come to th' ould plaace to-night
at the same time, and we may do summin."

"Do you think I'm a fool?" I said. "You cannot gull me with your
stories, for I know your tricks."

She laughed in my face, revealing gums that were toothless save for one
yellow fang that rested on her lower lip.

"Oa, I remember it, Maaster Roger," she said. "Ould Debrah do knaw the
curse. La me zee, how do it go?--

His power be given to another,
And he be crushed by younger brother,
Then his son, though born the first,
By the people shall be cursed;
And for generations three
Trewinion's heirs shall cursed be!

The old woman recited these lines glibly, as though they had been often
on her lips, and she chuckled as she repeated them.

"Go home," I said, angrily, "and trouble me no longer with your ugly
face."

"Iss! Iss! I'll go," she screamed; "but there'll be black days for
you. Ah, yer brother'll be wise if you be'ant. Ah, a Trewinion
disgraced, starvin', ruined!"

I turned savagely towards her, but old as