d at Truxton
King from the opposite side of the room. Mr. Hobbs had safely ensconced
himself in the rear of the six guardsmen, who stood near the door, ready
to dash forth if by any chance the terrified horses should succeed in
breaking away.

The Countess Marlanx, pale and rigid, her wondrous eyes glowing with
excitement, stood behind John Tullis, straight and strong, like a storm
spirit glorying in the havoc that raged about her. Time and again she
leaned forward to utter words of encouragement in the ear of the little
Prince, never without receiving a look of gratitude and surprise from
his tall protector.

And all this time the goose-herd grandson of the Witch was dancing his
wild, uncanny solo in the thick of the brew, an exalted grin on his
face, strange cries of delight breaking from his lips: a horrid
spectacle that fascinated the observers.

With incredible swiftness the storm passed. Almost at its height, there
came a cessation of the roaring tempest; the downpour was checked, the
thunder died away and the lightning trickled off into faint flashes. The
sky cleared as if by magic. The exhibition, if you please, was over!

Even the most stoical, unimpressionable men in the party looked at each
other in bewilderment and--awe, there was no doubt of it. The glare that
Dangloss bent upon the hag proved that he had been rudely shaken from
his habitual complacency.

"It is the most amazing thing I've ever seen," he said, over and over
again.

The Countess Marlanx was trembling violently. Tullis, observing this,
tried to laugh away her nervousness.

"Mere coincidence, that's all," he said. "Surely you are not
superstitious. You can't believe she brought about this storm?"

"It isn't that," she said in a low voice. "I feel as if a grave personal
danger had just passed me by. Not danger for the rest of you, but for me
alone. That is the sensation I have: the feeling of one who has stepped
back from the brink of an abyss just in time to avoid being pushed over.
I can't make you understand. See! I am trembling. I have seen no more
than the rest of you, yet am more terrified, more upset than Robin,
poor child. Perhaps I am foolish. I _know_ that something dreadful
has--I might say, touched me. Something that no one else could have seen
or felt."

"Nerves, my dear Countess. Shadows! I used to see them and feel them
when I was a lad no bigger than Bobby if left alone in the dark. It is a
grown-up fear of goblins.