`` Never mind . Tell us the story , '' I said curiously . `` It is about Mrs. John Martin 's uncle at Markdale , '' said the Story Girl . `` I heard Uncle Roger telling it the other night . He did n't know I was sitting on the cellar hatch outside the window , or I do n't suppose he would have told it . Mrs. Martin 's uncle 's name was William Cowan , and he has been dead for twenty years ; but sixty years ago he was a young man , and a very wild , wicked young man . He did everything bad he could think of , and never went to church , and he laughed at everything religious , even the devil . He did n't believe there was a devil at all . One beautiful summer Sunday evening his mother pleaded with him to go to church with her , but he would not . He told her that he was going fishing instead , and when church time came he swaggered past the church , with his fishing rod over his shoulder , singing a godless song . Half way between the church and the harbour there was a thick spruce wood , and the path ran through it . When William Cowan was half way through it SOMETHING came out of the wood and walked beside him . '' I have never heard anything more horribly suggestive than that innocent word `` something , '' as enunciated by the Story Girl . I felt Cecily 's hand , icy cold , clutching mine . `` What -- what -- was IT like ? '' 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 , XXXXX each shoulder , was the mark of a big hand , BURNED INTO THE FLESH .
ago for in on over past than that through to