Ratsey saw it too, and stretched out his hand to pick it up.

I would have concealed it if I could, because I had never told him how I had rifled Blackbeard's coffin, and did not want to be questioned as to how I had come by the writing.

But to try to stop him getting hold of it would only have spurred his curiosity, and so I said nothing when he took it in his hands.
'What is this, son ?' asked he.
'It is only Scripture verses,' I answered, 'which I got some time ago.
'Tis said they are a spell against Spirits of Evil, and I was reading them to keep off the loneliness of this place, when you came in and made me drop them.' I was afraid lest he should ask whence I had got them, but he did not, thinking perhaps that my aunt had given them to me.

The heat of the flames had curled the parchment a little, and he spread it out on his knee, conning it in the firelight.
''Tis well written,' he said, 'and good verses enough, but he who put them together for a spell knew little how to keep off evil spirits, for this would not keep a flea from a black cat.

I could do ten times better myself, being not without some little understanding of such things,' and he nodded seriously; 'and though I never yet met any from the other world, they would not take me unprepared if they should come.