"Murder! what comes next?" groaned I—for I could now speak—as the shadow of the figure of the poor woman rescued from perishing with thirst on board of the American brig glided along the wall with her infant in her arms and her clothes in disorder, the wet blanket which the poor negro had been moistening, when I first saw her, hanging from her shoulders, and her hair dishevelled; her figure, in fact, in every point precisely as I had seen her in the cabin. The apparition seemed to pause for a moment, and then stepped towards the box of dry goods, and setting itself down, began to rock itself and moan; and the poor picaniny began to struggle and pule at its mother's bosom for all the world as naturally as it had done in the brig.
"There's a phantasmagoria for you, Master Benjie;—free gratis for nothing, Master Benjie," said I to myself; whereupon my thumb, of the size of the Bologna sausage, took my nose, of the size of the cotton bag, such a crack! I thought it was knocked off. Presently I felt as if the latter had been set a-bleeding so furiously as to float the bed off the floor, and me in it. By and by the room became filled with blood; and there I lay, cruising about in the floating bed, until the door gave way, when the crimson torrent rushed down stairs like the rapids of Niagara, bursting into the other sleeping apartments in its descent—I could hear the suffocating coughs of the inmates as they were drowning. At length, the blood having had vent, the bed once more subsided, and took the ground on the very spot from whence it had originally been floated. The light on the wall, however, was still as strong as ever, but had changed from the moonlight tinge to a hot, deep red glare, such as the devils break out of rocks with in theatres.
The shadow of the box had disappeared, and so had the figure of the poor woman and her child; but I now heard a noise as of some one singing snatches of the Carnival of Venice to himself, and dancing as if practising a new step, with occasionally a tap tap on the floor, as if the performer had been the owner of a wooden leg.
"Come along, my lad," thought I; "why, what next, what next?"—on which the figure of a man, dressed in the old-fashioned coat commonly worn by physicians in Havanna, with frills at his wrists, and tight inexpressibles on, glided across the wall and disappeared. Presently I was conscious he was in the room, which became suddenly hot and choky, and, in fact, standing at my bedside, for I could hear some one breathe, although I had not the power of turning my neck to look at him.
"Have the kindness," said he, in some unknown tongue, but which was quite intelligible to me—"have the kindness to let me feel your pulse." Scarcely knowing what I did, I held out my hand. "Your nose, if you please," quoth the physician; on which he took it, big as it was, between his finger and thumb, and gave it such a squeeze, that it burst with a noise like thunder, and instantly relapsed into its former shape. At the report, I could hear the sentries on the walls a mile off, hailing—"quien viva, quien viva," along the whole line. The figure now came forward, so that I could see him. He was a tall and very handsome man, but his complexion, pale and ashy, had the self-radiant appearance of steel at a white heat; indeed the glow of his face was like to roast my skin into parchment. His features were good, but there was rather a peculiar cast in his eye. He wore a black silk cowl, which stuck out a little over his ears on each side, as if two small horns had been concealed under it; and he was dressed in deep black. One leg was symmetry itself, but the other was shaped like that of a satyr, and ended in a hoof; however, the shank was covered with a silk stocking, and the hoof by a curiously-shaped shoe, made by Hoby to fit with wonderful neatness.
"You will do very well now," said he, "so I will see how Mr Listado comes on;" and, as he turned to where he lay, I saw a small barbed tail, glowing like red-hot iron, protruding from between the voluminous skirts of his coat, that corruscated, and sent sparks all about the room. It kept twisting about like a live eel, and jerking in a fidgety manner; and I was puzzling myself how it did not burn the cloth of his skirts, when my attention was fixed on what the figure was doing. Listado was still sound asleep; there was a basin of water on a chair close to his head;—the figure dipped the end of the tail into it, when it instantly began to boil furiously, so that the spray of the bubbles, as they frothed and poppled about, burnt Listado's face, and he awoke.
"Who has scalded me in this way?" quoth he.
"Only have patience, my dear sir," said the physician; "it is all meant kindly,—merely to season you; merely to season you."
"Season me—season me to what, d—n me"—quoth Listado in a fury.
"With all the pleasure in life, my dear sir," said the figure, nipping off the tail of Listado's exclamation as if it had been a leech in the hands of my friend Majendie; "I will do any thing to oblige you, and d—d you shall be with all the comfort in life; only wait a moment;"—and he thereupon took a small very natty toasting fork out of his coat pocket; but, in the act, burnt his fingers against his red-hot tail. "Curse the tail," quoth he, as he pulled out the joints of the fork, until it was about a yard long. All this while Listado, blasted by the deep red glare into a dark crimson, lay like a big lobster newly boiled, looking at the physician's preparations, apparently fascinated, and without the power of motion. The figure now looked at me over his shoulder, and winked knowingly, when some vapour, like an escape from the safety-valve of a steam-boiler, puffed out of his mouth; but he apologized, and said, he had been smoking, although the flavour had more of brimstone than tobacco in it. "Good by, Mr Brail; I will come for you by and by."—"You need not hurry, my dear fellow," thought I;—and so saying, he, with all the coolness in life, clapped the fork into Listado's stern-frame, and, begging pardon for the trouble he was putting him to, lifted him, writhing like an impaled frog, on the instrument, and as if he really had been no heavier. He then calmly walked right through the solid wall with him, as if it had been a cloud, and disappeared. I could hear Listado roaring lustily all the while, and the physician making numberless apologies, always concluding with "I shall be as gentle with you, Mr Listado, as your request to be d—d will permit."