were all awake again; and, as he had hoped, the
great white owl spread its wings, sprang off from the ridge, and sailed
away over the fiord.

Oddo tossed up his cap, cold as the night was, so delighted was he to
have scared away the bird which had for a moment scared him. He hushed
his mirth, however, when he perceived that lights were wandering in the
yard, and that there were voices approaching. He saw that the household
were alarmed about him, and were coming forth to search for him.
Curious to see what they would do, Oddo crouched down in the darkest
corner of the gallery to watch and listen.

First came Rolf and his master, carrying torches, with which they
lighted up the whole expanse of snow as they came. They looked round
them without any fear, and Oddo heard Rolf say--

"If it were not for that cry, sir, I should think nothing of it. But my
fear is that some beast has got him."

"Search first the place where the cake and ale ought to be," said
Erlingsen. "Till I see blood, I shall hope the best."

"You will not see that," said Hund, who followed, his gloomy countenance
now distorted by fear, looking ghastly in the yellow light of the torch
he carried. "You will see no blood. Nipen does not draw blood."

"Never tell me that any one that was not wounded and torn could send out
such a cry as that," said Rolf. "Some wild brute seized him, no doubt,
at the very moment that Erica and I were standing at the door
listening."

Oddo repented his prank when he saw, in the flickering light behind the
crowd of guests, who seemed to hang together like a bunch of grapes, the
figures of his grandfather and Erica. The old man had come out in the
cold for his sake; and Erica, who looked as white as the snow, had no
doubt come forth because the old man wanted a guide. Oddo now wished
himself out of the scrape. Sorry as he was, he could not help being
amused, and keeping himself hidden a little longer, when he saw Rolf
discover the round hole in the snow where the can had sunk, and heard
the different opinions of the company as to what this portended. Most
were convinced that his curiosity had been his destruction, as they had
always prophesied. What could be clearer by this hole than that the ale
had stood there, and been carried off with the cake, and Oddo with it,
because he chose to stay and witness what is forbidden to mortals?

"I wonder where he is now?" said a shivering youth, the gayest dancer of
th