my hip. Just at this moment I felt
the cool water at my feet, an' wi' one tremendous effort, I whirled
myself into the stream to fight it out there. A moment I lay on my back
in the shallow stream, an' then I rose to my feet. I was alone wi'
nauthin' o' what had happened, save the open knife in my han', the
trampled beach, an' my torn an' ruined clawthin'.

"'Then I remembered that old McGregor used to say that nauthin' bad
could pass runnin' water, an' I thought I'd get back to ye if I could. I
remember somethin' of tearin' through the lonely beach an' blasted
woods, of seein' more faces in the trees, an' hearin' quick footsteps on
my track, but I remember nauthin' more. Look at my hip, will you, wi'
the cannle there? It hurts me awfully.'

"The candle fell from Jane's shaking hands, but was caught by her
husband before it was extinguished.

"'As God lives, ye have spoken the truth, for there is the mark o' the
devil's grip;' and greatly to the terror of all, there appeared on the
hip of the exhausted man the black imprint of a thumb and four fingers.

"My informant told me that, fifty years later, after Mountain had raised
a large family of children, and passed a life subsequently innocent of
his youthful excesses, the same indelible marks were left to tell of the
terrible conflict of that memorable night; and none of his neighbors
ever doubted the literal truth of his strange story, save one.

"That man was B., who never undeceived Mountain, or tried to do so; but
in detailing the story to my father, closed the recital thus: 'I have
always thought that he had an attack of delirium tremens, and that he
fancied the assault of the goblin; for I forgot to tell you that next
morning they followed his track, finding his shoes and fragments of his
attire on the opposite side of the run, which was torn up, with the
marks of a terrible struggle and many feet. Probably he tore off his own
clothes in the fancied fight, drew his knife, struck at "an air-born
fantasy," and was finally partially restored by falling into the water,
after which he completed his exhaustion by running back to the house.'

"'Have you seen the marks?' asked my father.

"'Yes; I saw them at the time,' slowly answered Mr. B.

"'Were they as described?'

"'Very like the grip of a hand; one dark impression on the back of the
left hip, and four smaller ones in a row on the front,' said B.

"'And how do you account for those?' asked my father.

"