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 always vanished as suddenly and as noiselessly as a shadow, long before he could come within striking distance. This experience, Kûlop found, was far more trying to the nerves than any stand-up fight. could have been. Violent action and the excitement of a bloody hand-to-hand encounter would have supplied him with an anodyne; but the invisibility of his enemy, and the intangible character of their pursuit of him added the terrors of a fever dream to the very imminent danger in which he now knew him- self to be.

The night which followed that day was a period of acute agony to the weary man, who dared not. sleep; and about midnight he again resumed his march, hoping thereby to elude his pursuers. For an hour he believed himself to have suc- ceeded in this. Then the shrill yells began once more to sound from the forest all around him, and at the first cry Kúlop's heart sank. Still he stumbled on, too tired out to charge at his phantom enemy, too hoarse at last even to raise his voice in the sôruk, but doggedly determined not to give in. He was beginning, however, visibly to fail, and as he showed visible signs of distress, the number and the boldness of his pursuers increased proportionately. Soon their yells were resounding on every side, and Kúlop, staggering forward, seemed like some lost soul, wend- ing his way to the Bottomless Pit, with an escort of mocking devils chanting their triumphant chorus around him.

Yet another unspeakable day followed, and when