“‘My life is charmed. Thy steel to me is useless. They hung me on a gibbet, and called me the Red Man from the mass of gore which flowed from the wounds inflicted by thy brother; but, as I have said, my life is renewed through mystic charms and spells, and at certain times of night, during certain seasons of the year, I can go abroad wherever I will. “‘See,’ said the intruder, ‘I come not alone.’ “He stamped his foot. “In a moment, Lord Edward was astonished to find that the room was filled with skeleton men. “‘You see I come not alone,’ said the intruder again; ‘this is my band, the Skeleton Crew; we are the scourge both of the sea and land; fear us, Warbeck, for never, until the last of thy name shall have ceased to live, will I, or my crew, cease to follow, and thwart you in all your designs.’ “‘Unholy fiend,’ Lord Edward exclaimed; ‘if even it be that all of you are endowed with life anew, heaven hath its counter spells for all your charms.’ [Illustration: THE MEETING IN THE WOOD.—(_See No. 23._)] “‘True,’ said the grisly visitor; ‘heaven had one on earth who, until to-night, preserved you and yours, but that one has departed, hence our hour of triumph has come.’ ‘At that same moment Lord Edward’s ears were startled by the distant tolling of the convent bell. “‘Listen,’ said the grim chief; ‘listen to the funeral knell of her you loved.’ “‘Leoline?’ gasped Lord Edward. “‘Yes, Leoline is no more.’ “‘I cannot, I will not believe it.’ “‘’Tis true, her spirit has left earth, and with it thy only protector, Lord of Warbeck.’ “These words were scarcely uttered, when the Skeleton Band were in turn struck with awe. “There, in the midst of them stood the spirit form of Leoline, who, in white robes, as light as air, held her hand aloft, and pronounced a solemn malediction on those who would have injured the gallant knight. “‘Begone, spirits of evil—vanish to the utmost corners of the earth; but never, while heaven hath a protecting arm, can the Red Man of the Gibbet harm or injure the noble race of Warbeck.’ “Such was the potency of the spirit presence that the Skeletons vanished; yet, since that day, and since that solemn hour, have the Skeleton Crew and the Warbecks been at deadly feud; and never,” said the Red Man, “until the last of the race shall have succumbed to my awful power will I rest in peace in my gibbet chains.” The Red Man concluded his narrative, and vanished as he had came—how, or where, none knew whither. For some time Death-wing and the rest remained as if spellbound. Never until then had any ever heard how the Skeleton Crew was founded; but now that its origin was unmistakably traced to a deadly hate to the family of the Warbecks, Death-wing, Redgill, and the rest rose in great anger, and swore, in the language of the Red Man, never to rest until the last descendants of the bold Warbecks were numbered with the dead.