onder that primitive peoples
imagined a haunted nature. I 'm an absolute Pagan this very moment. I
believe in Pan and Echo and all the rest of them, and I don't like
their company a bit."

"Have you noticed how silent it has grown all of a sudden?" he asked.
"It seems only a few minutes ago that we heard the crows cawing in the
branches, and the woods were full of small noises of squirrels and
birds."

She leaned forward and prodded the fire absently with a stick, gazing
into the flames as if fascinated. Presently a whiff of smoke unlike
that from the burning faggots reached her, and she looked up to see
that he had lighted his pipe.

"I don't mind your smoking," she commented, smiling, "but if that's a
sign that you have settled down for half an hour of solid comfort, I
must interpose. You can smoke as we go along."

"It's only half-past five," he said regretfully, holding up his watch
to the light.

Her reply was forestalled by a sound, slight in itself, and one that
would have passed unnoted an hour before, the sharp snapping of a twig
somewhere in the darkness behind her. Only when he saw her start, and
the widening of her dark eyes, did he realise how much truth had been
contained in her jesting confessions of a few moments since. He could
see that she was more than startled, that her emotion was one of fright.

"Why, it's nothing," he said reassuringly, rising to his feet. "Any
little noise sounds loud in the woods at night. It was only a
squirrel, or a decayed branch giving way. I 'll prove it to you." He
raised his voice and called "Hello, there!" The result was vaguely
disconcerting. "I forgot our friend Echo," he said apologetically.
With some idea of restoring her composure by his own unconcern, he
began to move in the direction from which the sound had come; but he
had taken only a few steps when a blot of darkness which had crouched
before him like a huge stone or the stump of a tree suddenly detached
itself and rose into the form of a man. Leigh had an indistinct vision
of a face, of arms that seemed to ward him off, and then the intruder
fled without a word, breaking through the woods like a frightened
animal. He stumbled back to the fire, and stood listening till the
sounds of flight had died away.

"Well," he declared, "that was a surprise! A mutual one too, it seems.
I don't know which of us was frightened the most, but we got away from
each other as fast as we could."

"Oh,