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 , 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 XXXXX the darkly mysterious bracken hollow ?
INTO around as before in over than that through to