whispered Felix , curiosity getting the better of his terror . `` IT was tall , and black , and hairy , '' said the Story Girl , her eyes glowing with uncanny intensity in the red glare of the fires , `` and IT lifted one great , hairy hand , with claws on the end of it , and clapped William Cowan , first on one shoulder and then on the other , and said , ` Good sport to you , brother . ' William Cowan gave a horrible scream and fell on his face right there in the wood . Some of the men around the church door heard the scream , and they rushed down to the wood . They saw nothing but William Cowan , lying like a dead man on the path . They took him up and carried him home ; and when they undressed him to put him to bed , there , on each shoulder , was the mark of a big hand , BURNED INTO THE FLESH . It was weeks before the burns healed , and the scars never went away . Always , as long as William Cowan lived , he carried on his shoulders the prints of the devil 's hand . '' I really do not know how we should ever have got home , had we been left to our own devices . We were cold with fright . How could we turn our backs on the eerie spruce wood , out of which SOMETHING might pop at any moment ? How cross those long , shadowy fields between us and our rooftree ? How venture through the darkly mysterious bracken hollow ? Fortunately , Uncle Alec came along at this crisis and said he thought we 'd better come home now , since the fires were nearly out . We slid down from the fence and started , taking care to keep close together and in front of Uncle Alec . `` I do n't believe a word of that yarn , '' said Dan , trying to speak with his usual incredulity . `` I do n't see how you can help believing it , '' said Cecily . `` It is n't as if it was something we 'd read of , or that happened far away . It happened just down at Markdale , and I 've seen that very spruce wood myself . '' `` Oh , I suppose William Cowan got a fright of some kind , '' conceded Dan , `` but I do n't believe he saw the devil . ''
`` Old Mr. Morrison XXXXX Lower Markdale was one of the men who undressed him , and he remembers seeing the marks , '' said the Story Girl triumphantly .
INTO as at before between from like of since that