t the illusion of a disordered brain. He sees as one partially blinded
by the sun.

Suddenly he starts. A sound such as he craves has come to him again. He
wheels to the right, whither the ledge winds round the crag. He peers
out; again he sees, and with a cry he rushes on. A moving figure is upon
the road; a smiling figure, a beckoning figure.

Up rises the way, a toilsome path and rugged; slippery and biting to the
unshod feet. He feels no pain; there is the figure. He presses on; and
the hungry legions move out from the forest below and follow boldly upon
his trail.

He rounds the bend. The call trembles down the mountainside, and its
music is strangely soothing and sweet to his ears. Quite abruptly a
broad plateau spreads out before him. It is edged on one side by a sheer
drop to unimaginable depths, on the other the uprising crags overhang in
horrible menace. The plateau is strewn with bleaching bones, and from
beneath the overhanging rocks comes a fetid stench. Now the figure is
lost again, and the dreadful straining eyes search vainly for the fair
face and beckoning hand. His heart labours and great pain is in his
chest. For he is high up in the mountain air, and every breath is an
effort.

Nor does he see the crouching object to his right, lying low to the
ground, with muscles quivering and eyes shooting green fire upon him.
There is no movement in the savage body but the furious, noiseless
lashing of the tail, and the bristling of the hair at its shoulders. But
suddenly a strange thing happens. The creature shrinks back, and draws
slowly away. Its awful eyes are averted as though in a fear it is
powerless to contend with. Its anger is lost in an arrant cowardice, and
the beast slinks within a low-mouthed cavern. What is it that has power
to put fear into the heart of the monarch of the mountainside, unless it
is the madness which peers out of the man's dreadful eyes.

And the man moves on unconscious of any lurking danger. As he passes,
the spell of his presence passes also. A roar comes from the depths of
the cavern, and is answered by the wolves as they crowd up to the edge
of the plateau. But though their reply is bold they hesitate to advance
further. For they know who dwells where the broken, bleaching bones lie,
and fear is in their hearts. They snuff at the air with muzzles
up-thrown, and their mangy coats bristle with sullen anger. The crowd
increases, the courage of the coward begins to rise withi