He was creeping forward slowly and painfully on his hands and
knees, but, all at once, sank down on his face in the grass, only
to rise, groaning, and creep on once more; and, as he went, I
heard him praying: "Lord, give me strength--O Lord, give me strength. Angela!
Angela! It is so far--so far--" And groaning, he sank down again,
upon his face.
"You are ill!" said I, bending over him.
"I must reach Deptford--she's buried at Deptford, and I shall
die to-night--O Lord, give me strength!" he panted.
"Deptford is miles away," said I.
Now, as I spoke, he lifted himself upon his hands and stared up
at me. I saw a haggard, hairy face, very thin and sunken, but a
fire burned in the eyes, and the eyes seemed, somehow, familiar.
"You!" he cried, and spat up in the air towards me; "devil!" he
cried, "Devil Vibart." I recoiled instinctively before the man's
sudden, wild ferocity, but, propping himself against the bank, he
shook his hand at me, and laughed.
"Devil!" he repeated; "shade!--ghost of a devil!--have you come
back to see me die?"
"Who are you?" I cried, bending to look into the pale, emaciated
face; "who are you?"
"A shadow," he answered, passing a shaking hand up over his face
and brow, "a ghost--a phantom--as you are; but my name was
Strickland once, as yours was Devil Vibart. I am changed of
late--you said so in the Hollow, and--laughed. You don't laugh
now, Devil Vibart, you remember poor John Strickland now."
"You are the Outside Passenger!" I exclaimed, "the madman who
followed and shot at me in a wood--"
"Followed? Yes, I was a shadow that was always behind you
--following and following you, Satan Vibart, tracking and
tracking you to hell and damnation. And you fled here, and you
fled there, but I was always behind you; you hid from me among
lowly folk, but you could not escape the shadow. Many times I
would have killed you--but she was between--the Woman. I came
once to your cottage; it was night, and the door opened beneath
my hand--but your time was not then. But--ha!--I met you among
trees, as I did once before, and I told you my name--as I did
once before, and I spoke of her--of Angela, and cried her name
--and shot you--just here, above the brow; and so you died,
Devil Vibart, as soon I must, for my mission is accomplished--"