Moonfleet Page #3

I'll show you,

if you promise not to tell anybody,

or I couldn't come to see you

any more.

Here. There's a breach

in the wall. See?

You do want me to come

and see you, don't you?

Well, come on then,

we'll sit in the summerhouse.

What's wrong?

What are you afraid of?

You don't talk much, do you?

Did the cat get your tongue?

I can't stay long, you know.

It's almost time for church.

The wind blewthe tide

into the graveyard last night.

Came over the wall

and right up to the church door.

Washed away

some of the tombstones.

Have you ever heard

about Redbeard?

Redbeard?

He's been in the churchyard again.

And taken another man.

What?

Master Greening. They say

it was Redbeard that took him!

Do you believe in ghosts?

I believe people should stay

out of the graveyard at night.

While Redbeard's around

looking for his lost diamond.

If I knew where it was,

I wouldn't be afraid!

Id sell the diamond

and rebuild the manor.

When my mother lived here, she said

the house had a hundred rooms

and stables for a hundred horses.

And fountains with gold and silver

fish that played all the time.

But it's not yours.

It belongs to Mr. Fox now.

We're going to live here together.

He's my friend!

That's the bell for church.

My uncle's waiting.

Are you coming?

...Praise Him, all creatures here below

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host

Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Amenl

"Thou shalt not have strange gods

before me!" So it is written.

Yet you worship the dark gods

of superstition and falsehood

like so many benighted savages!

You whisper of a man long dead,

a man whom you call Redbeard!

You credit him with supernatural

powers, powers of life and death!

Redbeard, indeed!

Sir John Mohune

was an officer of the Crown

who betrayed his sacred trust,

traduced his king

and sold his honour

for a diamond of great price!

He died in Hollisbrooke, a madman,

balked of the enjoyment

of his ill-gotten treasure.

And now, in death,

it is not to be believed

that such a man would be suffered

to defy the divine law

and dishonour the resting places

of our Christian dead!

- Amen!

- Amen, Parson.

But if it weren't Redbeard,

who killed Cracky Jones last winter?

And now...

Nat Greening.

Who took him?

Silence, Granny Clarke, and you,

Ratsey, that should know better.

When I urged...

that a search be made for Nathaniel

Greening, two days missing,

I was told that a search

was useless,

that he was last seen

in the churchyard, after sundown,

and so must have met a monstrous

fate at Redbeard's hands.

I say to you that

this is blasphemy!

And I say to you that if you

persist in these heathen beliefs,

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