Page:Weird Tales Volume 24 Issue 4 (1934-10).djvu/120

seemed like conspirators. I was in front with the Capuchins; Cecco and the priest came behind. When we came to the gate I lit the lantern; plenty of trouble it gave me, too; I thought it would never light, but at last I found a match that would kindle.

The priest was the first to enter the cemetery.

"What did I tell you?" whispered Cecco; "there he is again!"

I was in front. The light fell full on the face of Fioraccio. But why do I call it a face? It was black as charcoal, with open mouth and those two yellow teeth, and the yellow eyes wide open, shining in the darkness. I turned sick and stopped short.

"Heavens! how ugly he is!" I cried.

"Hush!" said the friar who was nearest me.

Then they put on their stoles, opened their books, sprinkled the dead with holy water, and recited the service of exorcism. I held the light; the priest clung to my sleeve, and I felt him tremble; indeed, from time to time he gave such convulsive starts that the lantern shook in my hand, and the friars could not see to read.

"Antonio! Antonio!" called out the friar, "Antonio! answer, in God's name."

Not a word did he say.

"Try calling him Fioraccio; perhaps he won't answer to his Christian name." This I whispered into the friar's ear.

The Capuchin sprinkled the corpse once more with holy water, then began calling,

"Fioraccio, answer, answer!"

There came a deep voice, hollow-sounding and far away, as if from fathoms underground.

"Who calls me? What do you want?"

It was the devil, who answered for him.

"Why do you not stay where you have been laid. What is the reason you do not rest?"

“Because I can not."

"Why can you not rest?"

"Because{[bar|2}}" And he began to tell us why. Such things! such things! that he had done in life. The priest put it all under the seal of confession with us afterward. He said that he was damned body and soul. And saying this, he swore a fearful oath. And then he said,

"Take me away from here."

"Where do you want to go?"

"To the Arno. Under water twenty braccios deep, where I can hear no bells."

"You shall have three braccios."

We heard another oath, always in that voice underground, for Fioraccio's mouth never stirred. And the friars sprinkled him again with holy water.

"For the last time; how much water must you have?"

"Five braccios."

"You shall have three, and no more."

He went on swearing. At last he said,

"Well, if I must I must, but not in too much of a hurry."

And at that moment we saw something, dressed all in red, fly up over the wall.

"We must come back tomorrow," said the friars. "God have us all in his holy keeping!"

We left the cemetery; you should have seen the priest how he trembled. The next day he sent for me and told me,

"We must take him away tonight, and you must make a coffin for him."

"But I never made a coffin in my life."

"You can manage it somehow. You can generally get to the end of what you undertake. And it needn't be such a fine piece of work, you know, so long as it holds together."