that night. The night was at times very dark, and whenever there would
come a cloud across the moon he could see nothing, and then he used
often to fall. Sometimes he was hurt, and sometimes he escaped, but he
was obliged always to rise on the moment and to hurry on. Sometimes the
moon would break out clearly, and then he would look behind him and see
the little people following at his back. And he heard them speaking
amongst themselves, talking and crying out, and screaming like a flock
of sea-gulls; and if he was to save his soul he never understood as much
as one word of what they were saying.

He did not know how far he had walked, when at last one of them cried
out to him, "Stop here!" He stood, and they all gathered round him.

"Do you see those withered trees over there?" says the old boy to him
again. "Teampoll-Démus is among those trees, and you must go in there by
yourself, for we cannot follow you or go with you. We must remain here.
Go on boldly."

Teig looked from him, and he saw a high wall that was in places half
broken down, and an old grey church on the inside of the wall, and about
a dozen withered old trees scattered here and there round it. There was
neither leaf nor twig on any of them, but their bare crooked branches
were stretched out like the arms of an angry man when he threatens. He
had no help for it, but was obliged to go forward. He was a couple of
hundred yards from the church, but he walked on, and never looked behind
him until he came to the gate of the churchyard. The old gate was thrown
down, and he had no difficulty in entering. He turned then to see if any
of the little people were following him, but there came a cloud over the
moon, and the night became so dark that he could see nothing. He went
into the churchyard, and he walked up the old grassy pathway leading to