"Had you not better go and look for your friend now?" Wilfred observed, just as h.e.l.len was about to seat himself beside his wife and children.
"Marguerite will go with you, and on your return the three of you can have your meal in here after the children have gone to bed."
h.e.l.len readily a.s.sented, and kissing his wife and little ones, who tearfully implored him not to be gone long, set out, accompanied by Marguerite.
At each step they took, Marguerite"s beauty became more irresistible.
The soft rays of the moon falling directly on her features enhanced their loveliness, and h.e.l.len could not keep his eyes off her. The ominous cry of a night bird startled her; she edged timidly up to him; and he had to exert all his self-control, so eager was he to clasp her to him. In a strained, unnatural manner he kept up a flow of small-talk, eliciting the information that she was an art student, and that she had studied in Paris and Antwerp, had exhibited in Munich and Turin, and was contemplating visiting London the following spring. They talked on in this strain until h.e.l.len, remembering their mission, exclaimed:--
"We must be very close to where I left Schiller. I will call to him."
He did so--not once, but many times; and the reverberation of his voice rang out loud and clear in the silence of the vast, moon-kissed forest.
But there was no response, nothing but the rustling of branches and the shivering of leaves.
"What"s that?" Marguerite suddenly cried, clutching hold of h.e.l.len"s arm. "There! right in front of us, lying on the ground. There!" and she indicated the object with her gleaming finger-tip.
"It looks remarkably like Schiller," h.e.l.len said. "Can he be asleep?"
Quickening their pace, they speedily arrived at the spot. It was Schiller, or rather what had once been Schiller, for there was now very little left of him but the face and hands and feet; the rest had only too obviously been eaten. The spectacle was so shocking that for some minutes h.e.l.len was too overcome to speak.
"It must have been wolves!" he said at length. "I fancied I heard them several times. Would to G.o.d I had never left him! What a death!"
"Horrible!" Marguerite whispered, and she turned her head away to avoid so harrowing a sight.
"Well," h.e.l.len observed in a voice broken with emotion, "it"s no use staying here. We can"t be of any service to him now. I will gather the remains together in the morning, and with the a.s.sistance of your father see that they are decently interred. Come! let us be going." And offering Marguerite his arm, they began to retrace their steps.
For some time h.e.l.len was too occupied with thoughts of his friend"s cruel death to think of anything else, but the close proximity of Marguerite gradually made itself felt, and by the time they had reached the open clearing--the spot where he had encountered Wilfred--his pa.s.sion completely overpowered him. Throwing discretion to the winds, and oblivious of wife, children, home, honour, everything save Marguerite--the l.u.s.tre of her eyes and the dainty curving of her lips--he slipped his arm round her waist, and pressing her close to him, smothered her in kisses.
"How dare you, sir!" she panted, slowly shaking herself free. "Aren"t you ashamed of such behaviour? What would your wife say, if she knew?"
"I couldn"t help it," h.e.l.len pleaded. "I"m not myself to-night. Your beauty has bewitched me, and I would risk anything to have you in my arms." He spoke so earnestly and looked at her so appealingly that she smiled.
"I know I am beautiful," she said, and the intonation of her voice thrilled him to the very marrow of his bones. "Dozens of men have told me so. Consequently, since there seems to have been some excuse for you, I forgive you, only----," but before she could say another word, h.e.l.len had again seized her, and this time he did not loosen his hold till from sheer exhaustion he could kiss her no more.
"It"s no use!" he panted. "I can"t help it. I love you as I never loved a woman before, and if you were to ask me to do so I would go to h.e.l.l with you this very minute."
"It is dangerous to express such sentiments here," Marguerite said.
"Don"t you know this spot is full of supernatural influences, and that the first two things you wish for will be granted?"
"I have already wished," h.e.l.len said. "I wished when I was here with your father."
"Then wish again," Marguerite replied; "I a.s.sure you your wishes will be fulfilled." And again she looked at him in a way that sent all the blood in his body surging wildly to his head, and roused his pa.s.sion in hot and furious rebellion against his reason.
"I wish, then," he cried, seizing hold of her hands and pressing them to his lips--"I wish every obstacle removed that prevents my having you always with me--that is wish number one."
"And wish number two?" the girl interrogated, her warm, scented breath fanning his cheeks and nostrils. "Won"t you wish that you may be mine for ever? Always mine, mine to eternity!"
"I will!" h.e.l.len cried. "May I be yours always--yours to do what you like with--in this life and the next."
"And now you shall have your reward," Marguerite exclaimed, clapping her hands gleefully. "I will kiss you of my own free will," and throwing her arms round his neck, she drew his head down to hers, and kissed him, kissed him not once but many times.
An hour later they left the spot and slowly made their way to the cottage. As they neared it, loud screams for help rent the air, and h.e.l.len, to his horror, heard his wife and children--he could recognize their individual voices--shrieking to him to save them.
In an instant he was himself again. All his old affection for home and family was restored, and with a loud answering shout he started to rush to their a.s.sistance. But Marguerite willed otherwise. With a dexterous movement of her feet she got in his way and tripped him, and before he had time to realize what was happening, she had flung herself on the top of him and pinioned him down.
"No!" she said playfully, "you shall not go! You are mine, mine always, remember, and if I choose to keep you here with me, here you must remain."
He strove to push her off, but he strove in vain; for the slender, rounded limbs he had admired so much possessed sinews of steel, and he was speedily reduced to a state of utter impotence.
The shrieks from the cottage were gradually lapsing into groans and gurgles, all horribly suggestive of what was taking place, but it was not until every sound had ceased that Marguerite permitted h.e.l.len to rise.
"You may go now," she said with a mischievous smile, kissing him gaily on the forehead and giving his cheeks a gentle slap. "Go--and see what a lucky man you are, and how speedily your first wish has been gratified."
Sick with apprehension, h.e.l.len flew to the cottage. His worst forebodings were realized. Stretched on the floor of their respective rooms, with big, gaping wounds in their chests and throats, lay his wife and children; whilst cross-legged, on a chest in the kitchen, his dark saturnine face suffused with glee, squatted Wilfred.
"Fiend!" shouted h.e.l.len. "I understand it all now. I have been dealing with the Spirits of the Harz Mountains. But be you the Devil himself you shan"t escape me," and s.n.a.t.c.hing an axe from the wall, he aimed a terrific blow at Wilfred"s head.
The weapon pa.s.sed right through the form of Wilfred, and h.e.l.len, losing his balance, fell heavily to the ground. At this moment Marguerite entered.
"Fool!" she cried; "fool, to think any weapon can harm either Wilfred or me. We are phantasms--phantasms beyond the power of either Heaven or h.e.l.l. Come here!"
Impelled by a force he could not resist, h.e.l.len obeyed--and as he gazed into her eyes all his blind infatuation for her came back.
"We must part now," she said; "but only for a while--for remember, you belong to me. Here is a token"--and she thrust into his hand a wisp of her long, golden hair. "Sleep on it and dream of me. Do not look so sad.
I shall come for you without fail, and by this sign you shall know when I am coming. When this mark begins to heal," she said, as, with the nail on the forefinger of the right hand, she scratched his forehead, "get ready!"
There was then a loud crash--the room and everything in it swam before h.e.l.len"s eyes, the floor rose and fell, and sinking backwards he remembered no more.
When he recovered he was lying in the centre of the haunted plot. There was nothing to be seen around him except the trees--dark lofty pines that, swaying to and fro in the chill night breeze, shook their sombre heads at him. A great sigh of relief broke from him--his experiences of course had only been a dream. He was trying to collect his thoughts, when he discovered that he was holding something tightly clasped in one of his hands. Unable to think what it could be, he rose, and held it in the full light of the moon. He then saw that it was a tuft of white fur--the fur of some animal. Much puzzled, he put it in his pocket, and suddenly recollecting his friend, set out for the place where he had left him. "I shall soon know," he said to himself, "whether I have been asleep all this time--G.o.d grant it may be so!" His heart beat fearfully as he pressed forward, and he shouted out "Schiller" several times. But there was no reply, and presently he came upon the remains, just as he had seen them when accompanied by Marguerite. Convinced now that all that had taken place was grim reality, he went back along the route Schiller and he had taken the preceding day, and in due time reached the village. To the landlord of the inn where they had stayed he related what had happened. "I am truly sorry for you," the landlord said; "your experience has indeed been a terrible one. Every one here knows the forest is haunted in that particular spot, and we all give it as wide a berth as possible. But you have been most unfortunate, for Wilfred and Marguerite, who are werwolves, only visit these parts periodically. I last heard of them being seen when I was about ten years of age, and they then ate a pedlar called Schwann and his wife."
As soon as Schiller"s remains had been brought to the village and interred in the cemetery, h.e.l.len, armed to the teeth and accompanied by several of the biggest and strongest hounds he could hire--for he could get none of the villagers to go with him--spent a whole day searching for Wilfred"s cottage. But although he was convinced he had found the exact spot where it had stood, there were now no traces of it to be seen.
At length he returned to the village, and on the following morning set out for Frankfort. On his arrival home he was immediately apprised of the fact that a terrible tragedy had occurred in his house. His wife and children had been found dead in their beds, with their throats cut and dreadful wounds in their chests, and the police had not been able to find the slightest clue to the murderers. With a terrible sinking at the heart h.e.l.len asked for particulars, and learned, as he knew only too well he would learn, that the date of the tragedy was identical with that of his adventure in the forest.
He tried hard to persuade himself that the coincidence was a mere coincidence; but--he knew better. Besides, there was the scratch!--the scratch on his forehead.
Moreover, the scratch remained. It remained fresh and raw till a few days prior to his death, when it began to heal. And on the day he died it had completely healed.
CHAPTER X
A LYCANTHROPOUS BROOK IN THE HARZ MOUNTAINS; OR, THE CASE OF THE COUNTESS HILDA VON BREBER