woods were dimmer, and all the air was very still. Suddenly the darkness
about him glowed; a furnace fire had shot up on the mountain, and for a
moment the little world of the woodside and the steep hill shone in a
pale light, and he thought he saw his path beaten out in the turf before
him. The great flame sank down to a red glint of fire, and it led him on
down the ragged slope, his feet striking against ridges of ground, and
falling from beneath him at a sudden dip. The bramble bushes shot out
long prickly vines, amongst which he was entangled, and lower he was held
back by wet bubbling earth. He had descended into a dark and shady
valley, beset and tapestried with gloomy thickets; the weird wood noises
were the only sounds, strange, unutterable mutterings, dismal,
inarticulate. He pushed on in what he hoped was the right direction,
stumbling from stile to gate, peering through mist and shadow, and still
vainly seeking for any known landmark. Presently another sound broke upon
the grim air, the murmur of water poured over stones, gurgling against
the old misshapen roots of trees, and running clear in a deep channel. He
passed into the chill breath of the brook, and almost fancied he heard
two voices speaking in its murmur; there seemed a ceaseless utterance of
words, an endless argument. With a mood of horror pressing on him, he
listened to the noise of waters, and the wild fancy seized him that he
was not deceived, that two unknown beings stood together there in the
darkness and tried the balances of his life, and spoke his doom. The hour
in the matted thicket rushed over the great bridge of years to his
thought; he had sinned against the earth, and the earth trembled and
shook for vengeance. He stayed still for a moment, quivering with fear,
and at last went on blindly, no longer caring for the path, if only he
might escape from the toils of that dismal shuddering hollow. As he
plunged through the hedges the bristling thorns tore his face and hands;
he fell amongst stinging-nettles and was pricked as he beat out his way
amidst the gorse. He raced headlong, his head over his shoulder, through