of my own dreaming brain. I am willing that, if it please you,
you should accept any of these hypotheses. As for me, in my sorrow
and despair, I am resolved to leave no means untried to recover
my boy; and it happens that the village in question is not far
from the scene of the disaster which deprived me of him. A strange
hope--a confidence even--grows in my heart as I approach the end
of my journey. I believe I am about to verify the truth of my
friend's story, and that, through the wonderful faculty possessed
by these Alpine peasants, the promise of my visions will be realised."

His voice broke again, he ceased speaking, and turned his face away
from me. I was greatly moved, and anxious to impress him with a
belief in the sincerity of my sympathy, and in my readiness to accept
the truth of the tale he had repeated.

"Do not think," I said with some warmth, "that I am disposed to
make light of what you tell me, strange though it sounds. Out in
the West, where I come from, I heard, when a boy, many a story at
least as curious as yours. In our wild country, odd things chance
at times, and queer circumstances, they say, happen in out of the way
tracks in forest and prairie; aye, and there are strange creatures
that haunt the bush, some tell, in places where no human foot is
wont to tread. So that nothing of this sort comes upon me with
an air of newness, at least! I mayn't quite trust it, as you do,
but I am no scoffer. Look, now, Mr. St. Aubyn, I have a proposal
to make. You are alone, and purpose undertaking a bitter and, it
may be, a perilous journey in mountain ground at this season. What
say you to taking me along with you? May be, I shall prove of some use;
and at any rate, your adventure and your story interest me greatly!"