When we reached the softer sands near the back of the cove, where the walking was difficult, I bade Winifred good-night, and she turned somewhat demurely to the left on her way to Needle Point, between which and the spot where we now parted she would have to pass below the church on the cliff, and close by the great masses of debris from the new landslip that had fallen from the churchyard.  This landslip (which had taken place since she had left home for her moonlight walk) had changed the shape of the cove into a figure something like the Greek epsilon.

I walked rapidly towards Flinty Point, which I should have to double before I could reach the gangway I was to take.  So feverishly possessed had I become by the desire to prevent the sacrilege, if possible, that I had walked some distance away from Winifred before I observed how high the returning tide had risen in the cove.

When I now looked at Flinty Point, round which I was to turn, I saw that it was already in deep water, and that I could not reach the gangway outside the cove.  It was necessary, therefore, to turn back and ascend by the gangway Winifred was making for, behind Needle Point, which did not project so far into the sea.  So I turned back.  As I did so, I perceived that she had reached the projecting mass of debris in the middle of the semicircle below the churchyard, and was looking at it.  Then I saw her stoop, pick up what seemed a paper parcel, open it, and hold it near her face to trace out the letters by the moonlight.  Then I saw her give a start as she read it.  I walked towards her, and soon reached the landslip.  Evidently what she read agitated her much.  She seemed to read it and re-read it.  When she saw me she put it behind her back, trying to conceal it from me.

‘What have you picked up, Winifred?’ I said, in much alarm; for my heart told me that it was in some way connected with her father and the shriek.

‘Oh, Henry!’ said she, ’I was in hopes you had not seen it.  I am so grieved for you.  This parchment contains a curse written in large letters.  Some sacrilegious wretch has broken into the church and stolen a cross placed in your father’s tomb.’

God!—­It was the very same parchment scroll from my father’s tomb on which was written the curse!  I was struck dumb with astonishment and dismay.  The whole terrible truth of the situation broke in upon me at one flash.  The mysterious shriek was explained now.  Wynne had evidently broken open the tomb as soon as his daughter was out of the way.  He had then, in order to reach the cottage without running the risk of being seen by a chance passenger on the Wilderness Road, blundered about the edge of the cliff at the very moment when it was giving way, and had fallen with it.  It was his yell of despair amid the noise of the landslip that Winifred and I had both heard.  My sole thought was for Winifred.  She had read the curse; but where was the dead body of her father that would proclaim upon whose head the curse had fallen?  I stared around me in dismay.  She saw how deeply I was disturbed, but little dreamed the true cause.