CHAPTER LXIV.
THE RED MAN OF THE GIBBET GIVES WARNING TO THE SKELETON CREW—DEATH-WING LEADS ON THE LAST ATTACK OF HIS CREW—NED WARBECK, BOB BERTRAM, LIEUTENANT GARNET, AND TIM HAVE AMPLE REVENGE—STIRRING SCENES.
THE RED MAN OF THE GIBBET GIVES WARNING TO THE SKELETON CREW—DEATH-WING LEADS ON THE LAST ATTACK OF HIS CREW—NED WARBECK, BOB BERTRAM, LIEUTENANT GARNET, AND TIM HAVE AMPLE REVENGE—STIRRING SCENES.
But although the “Dozen,” with Captain Jack, and old Bates, were disposed of by the grim hands of the law, there were other enemies who roamed still at large.
Phillip Redgill lay dying upon his bed in a lunatic asylum, and made night hideous with his awful shouts and oaths.
It almost seemed as if he were haunted by a thousand demons, for both night and day he screeched and yelled in the most frightful manner, so that his dismal cries could be heard afar off.
“Take them away! take them away!” he would scream aloud with a foaming mouth, wild, widely distended eyes, his hair standing on end, and gnashing his teeth.
“Take them away, take them away! the legs are bleeding—they are walking—they are following me, wherever I go. Away with them—destroy them! Take them away!” he would shout, both day andnight, while he kicked and tore the bed-clothes like an incarnate fiend.
The keepers shook their heads, and looked very serious and silent.
Some of the men went so far as to say that they had seen the gory legs.
Others, not so bold, swore that they had heard them walking up and down the maniac’s cell, at the hour of midnight.
Certain it is, that after suffering the most terrible tortures of mind and body, Phillip Redgill seemed to become suddenly calmer, and his reason returned.
But on a certain night, just as the tower clocks chimed the hour of twelve, he shouted out—
“Here is the Red Man of the Gibbet, he stands beside me! on my left hand is the ghost of my father; and walking over the bed-clothes are the phantom legs! Mercy—mercy! pardon—pardon! A thousand devils haunt my heart and soul. Away, away! avaunt! I die—I die!”
He fell prostrate on the stone floor, foaming at the mouth.
Life was not yet quite extinct.
Again he screamed out—
“The legs—the phantom legs are here once more—away, away!”
A voice at that same moment was heard to say in awful sepulchral tones,
“Phillip Redgill, I will follow you forever!” Phillip Redgill rose to his feet like one again raised to life—uttered a terrible scream, and—fell dead, foaming blood!