Page:Weird Tales Volume 7 Number 5 (1926-05).djvu/90

 hell!—Leave this cottage or you may fare worse."

"Ha-ha!" replied the hunter; "would you harm a potent spirit of the Hartz Mountains? Poor mortal, who must needs wed a werewolf."

"Out, demon! I defy thee and thy power."

"Yet shall you feel it; remember your oath—your solemn oath—never to raise your hand against her to harm her."

"I made no compact with evil spirits."

"You did; and if you failed in your vow, you were to meet the vengeance of the spirits. Your children were to perish by the vulture, the wolf"

"Out, out, demon!"

"And their bones blanch in the wilderness. Ha-ha!"

My father, frantic with rage, seized his ax, and raised it over Wilfred's head to strike.

"All this I swear," continued the huntsman, mockingly.

The ax descended; but it passed through the form of the hunter, and my father lost his balance, and fell heavily on the floor.

"Mortal!" said the hunter, striding over my father's body; "we have power over those only who have committed murder. You have been guilty of double murder—you shall pay the penalty attached to your marriage vow. Two of your children are gone; the third is yet to follow—and follow them he will, for your oath is registered. Go—it were kindness to kill you—your punishment is—that you live!"

