Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 2).djvu/606

 waves carried it. Anna was speechless with horror. Otto leaned back with closed eyes, apparently thoroughly satisfied with himself, letting his hand hang over the boat's side and dip into the water.

The broad valley lay calm and peaceful before them. Green fields and meadows were on either side, and the high tree-tops were still illuminated by the rays of the setting sun.

Anna buried her face in her hands, and wept bitterly. Otto half rose up.

"Now," he said, "we are alone in the world you and I!" And his voice was soft and gentle.

The girl roused herself. "You must take me across the water, Otto," she cried. "You undertook to do it, and a man never breaks his word!"

"I will take you across, the river," he replied, relenting.

"But you must land me just opposite your house."

"Hush! Anna; you must see that now that would be quite impossible; our house is far behind us. Very soon we shall reach the fishing huts—we will stop there. Then I will get a carriage and horses at one of the farms, and in an hour's time you will be at home. Now, stop crying; surely you can understand a joke. I see I cannot force you to love me."

The little boat still drifted. It kept always in the middle of the river; the waves plashed and broke on either sandy bank. Often a little fish popped up and snapped after a fly, and the water bubbled over the place where it had been. The sun had gone down, banks of golden clouds floated in the skies, and the boat went dancing over purple-coloured waves.

At last, when it was dark, and the valley began to narrow, and the boat drew near the fisher-huts, Otto began to shout for help. His voice re-echoed back from the forest with a dull, empty sound. No one heard; no one came to help them. Then he tried to break off one of the benches and to make a paddle of it, but everything was firmly riveted together; and the little boat still drifted. The young man clasped his hands in agony.

"I would give my life," he exclaimed, "to change our course, but I cannot do it! Anna, night is drawing near. If we float on like this a few hours longer," and he seized her arm, with a shudder, "we shall get into the Dragon's Hole!"

"Into the Dragon's Hole!" screamed Anna. She turned shudderingly away from Otto, and then clung to him as though she were already sinking in some bottomless abyss.

The "Dragon's Hole" was the name given to the mouth of the wild cavern through which the mountain river rushed, and flowing onwards underground for many miles, came to light again at last behind the mountain where the plain began. There the river is much narrower than where it