hunting-spear which he held in his grasp.

The signal remaining unanswered, he quitted the tree, and shaped his
course along the side of a hill on the right. Keeping under the shelter of
the thicket on the top of the same hill, Surrey and Richmond followed,
and saw him direct his steps towards another beech-tree of almost
double the girth of that he had just visited. Arrived at this mighty tree,
he struck it with his spear, while a large owl, seated on a leafless
branch, began to hoot; a bat circled the tree; and two large snakes,
glistening in the moonlight, glided from its roots. As the tree was
stricken for the third time, the same weird figure that the watchers had
seen ride along the Home Park burst from its riften trunk, and
addressed its summoner in tones apparently menacing and imperious,
but whose import was lost upon the listeners. The curiosity of the
beholders was roused to the highest pitch, but an undefinable awe
prevented them from rushing forward.

Suddenly the demon hunter waved a pike with which he was armed,
and uttered a peculiar cry, resembling the hooting of an owl. At this
sound, and as if by magic, a couple of steeds, accompanied by the two
hounds, started from the brake. In an instant the demon huntsman
vaulted upon the hack of the horse nearest to him, and the keeper
almost as quickly mounted the other. The pair then galloped off
through the glen, the owl flying before them, and the hounds coursing
by their side.

The two friends gazed at each other, for some time, in speechless
wonder. Taking heart, they then descended to the haunted tree, but
could perceive no traces of the strange being by whom it had been
recently tenanted. After a while they retraced their course towards the