As soon as the door was opened, the man, holding the little maiden's hand in his own, stepped into the house to be out of the gust of wind and rain.
"We are belated travellers, kind sir, and seek shelter from the storm," the stranger began.
At sound of his voice, John Louder sprang to his feet, and, seizing the lamp, held it close to the man's face. Starting back with a yell, he cried:
"Away! wizard, devil, away! You are he who offered the book to me. Away! away! or I will slay you!"
The startled stranger answered:
"I never saw you before."
John Louder insisted that he was the evil one who had met him at the lake while he was stalking the deer, and had offered him the book to sign.
"I never saw you before in my life," the stranger answered, his theatrical tones making a strange impression on the superstitious Louder. He read in his face the look of a demon, and continued to cry:
"You must, you shall go away! Prince of darkness, back into the storm which your powers created!"
Charles Stevens was too much amazed to speak for some moments, for, by the combined aid of the lamp and firelight, he saw before him the very features of the man whom he had found wounded and almost dying at the spring. The wanderer turned his sad and handsome face to the youth and asked: