iled by an enemy.

But the person outside now uttered long, plaintive, mournful groans, to
which the young man replied by similar groans, and thus days and nights
passed without their ceasing to howl at each other. The one was
continually walking round the house and scraped the walls with his
nails so vigorously that it seemed as if he wished to destroy them,
while the other, inside, followed all his movements, stooping down, and
holding his ear to the walls, and replying to all his appeals with
terrible cries. One evening, however, Ulrich heard nothing more, and he
sat down, so overcome by fatigue that he went to sleep immediately, and
awoke in the morning without a thought, without any recollection of
what had happened, just as if his head had been emptied during his
heavy sleep. But he felt hungry, and he ate.

The winter was over, and the Gemmi pass was practicable again, so the
Hauser family started off to return to their inn. As soon as they had
reached the top of the ascent, the women mounted their mule, and spoke
about the two men who they would meet again shortly. They were, indeed,
rather surprised that neither of them had come down a few days before,
as soon as the road became passable, in order to tell them all about
their long winter sojourn. At last, however, they saw the inn, still
covered with snow, like a quilt. The door and the windows were closed,
but a little smoke was coming out of the chimney, which reassured old
Hauser; on going up to the door, however, he saw the skeleton of an
animal which had been torn to pieces by the eagles, a large skeleton
lying on its side.

They all looked closely at it, and the mother said: "That must be Sam."
Then she shouted: "Hi! Gaspard!" A cry from the interior of the house
answered her, so sharp a cry that one might have thought some animal
uttered it. Old Hauser repeated: "Hi! Gaspard!" and they heard another
cry, similar to the first.

Then the three men, the father and the two sons, tried to open the
door, but it resisted their efforts. From the empty cow-stall they took
a beam to serve as a battering-ram, and hurled it against the door with
all their might. The wood gave way, and the boards flew into splinters;
then the house was shaken by a loud voice, and inside, behind the
sideboard which was overturned, they saw a man standing upright, his
hair falling on to his shoulders and a beard descending to his breast,
with shining eyes and nothing but rags to co