For some time the two horsemen remained motionless, intently gazing at the horrid gibbet, as it creaked and swayed in the moonlight. The skeleton’s bones were of unearthly whiteness and stood erect in their iron cage. The winds sighed mournfully through the trees. A feeling of awe took possession of the horsemen as they stood and gazed at the ghastly object. Their steeds even trembled with excitement, and snorted and shied at the gallows and the shadow of its skeleton tenant. “What are you trembling about?” said Ned. “Be more of a man, Tim; _I_ don’t see anything very strange.” “No, sir; but _I_ do. Look! look! see the red eyes are rolling about. I told you it were alive. See! see! Oh, horrors!” said Tim, shivering. He would have backed his horse away, but Ned seized Tim’s rein with his right hand firmly. True enough, however, the skeleton in the gibbet _did_ move. Its eyes, which before were invisible in their deep-sunk sockets, now turned a deep, dark, fiery red colour, and rolled about most alarmingly. Ned’s horse reared and danced about, and he sat looking on in mute astonishment, but with bold, firm-set features. “It is alive! it is alive, master! Let us get away! it is—it _must_ be the devil himself!” “Hold thy peace,” said Ned, in a petulant whisper. And, then aloud, he addressed the ghastly, hideous form. “Be ye devil or mortal, speak!” said Ned, fiercely. “Who and what art thou?” The Red Man raised his skeleton arm, and suddenly thrust it through the grating of his prison-house, as he pointed his long, lean fingers, and said, “Edward Warbeck, I am thine enemy! Beware!”[1] “Mine enemy?” said Ned, with a grim smile. “Aye, the same you saw this very night. At certain times and seasons I walk the earth; beware, I say, of the Red Man of the Gibbet and the Skeleton Crew. I am thy fate! When we meet again thou wilt tremble at my presence. Until we meet again, adieu!” The long arm descended again by his grim, bony sides. His red eyes lost their fiery lustre. His marrowless bones shook in their iron cage. All was still, quiet and solitary as the grave. Nought was heard—nothing was seen but a stray vulture as it circled in the air near by and pounced on the gibbet. Wildfire Ned was astonished, but not dismayed. He laughed aloud in wild derision, as he said, “Tremble at thy presence? Never!” The Red Man echoed the laugh in sepulchral tones. Ned turned his head to look around. Tim had left him, and was then madly galloping away. Ned was alone at that awful spot! CHAPTER VII. PHILIP REDGILL’S ENCOUNTER WITH WILDFIRE NED. It was a lucky moment for some of the servants that old Sir Richard and his party of sailors did so suddenly burst upon the scene, and thus put an end to the bloody ordeal that was then taking place. They had hung several to the beam, and some of the maid servants had been carried off. Roger and the coachman lay upon the floor, thoroughly exhausted, bleeding from all parts of the body.