it's what I came for. I suppose," he added aloud, "some form of
document is usual in these cases?"

The dark man drew out pen and parchment.

"Hold forth your hand," he commanded; and as John held it out, thinking
he meant to shake it over the bargain, the fellow drove the pen into his
wrist until the blood spurted. "Now sign!"

"Sign!" said the other villain.

"Sign!" said the lady.

"Oh, very well, miss. If you're in the swindle too, my mind is easier,"
said John, and signed his name with a flourish. "But a bargain is a
bargain, and what security have I for your part in it?"

"Our signature!" said the priest terribly, at the same moment pressing
his branding-iron into John's ankle. A smell of burnt cork arose as
John stooped and clapped his hand over the scorched stocking. When he
looked up again his visitors had vanished; and a moment later the
strange light, too, died away.

But the coffin remained for evidence that he had not been dreaming.
John lit a candle and examined it.

"Just the thing for me," he exclaimed, finding it to be a mere shell of
pine-boards, loosely nailed together and painted black. "I was
beginning to shiver." He knocked the coffin to pieces, crammed them
into the fireplace, and very soon had a grand fire blazing, before which