wall towered up always above him to heaven. Sometimes he prayed that a
little moss or lichen might spring up on those bare walls to be a companion
to him; but it never came." The stranger watched the boy's face.

"And the years rolled on; he counted them by the steps he had cut--a few
for a year--only a few. He sang no more; he said no more, 'I will do this
or that'--he only worked. And at night, when the twilight settled down,
there looked out at him from the holes and crevices in the rocks strange
wild faces.

"'Stop your work, you lonely man, and speak to us,' they cried.

"'My salvation is in work, if I should stop but for one moment you would
creep down upon me,' he replied. And they put out their long necks
further.

"'Look down into the crevice at your feet,' they said. 'See what lie
there--white bones! As brave and strong a man as you climbed to these
rocks.' And he looked up. He saw there was no use in striving; he would
never hold Truth, never see her, never find her. So he lay down here, for
he was very tired. He went to sleep forever. He put himself to sleep.
Sleep is very tranquil. You are not lonely when you are asleep, neither do
your hands ache, nor your heart. And the hunter laughed between his teeth.

"'Have I torn from my heart all that was dearest; have I wandered alone in
the land of night; have I resisted temptation; have I dwelt where the voice
of my kind is never heard, and laboured alone, to lie down and be food for
you, ye harpies?'

"He laughed fiercely; and the Echoes of Despair slunk away, for the laugh