this time, but to Frank's
agitated mind, it was simply one of its tactics to induce him to
come nearer.

He suddenly bethought himself of the stream. His terror reached its
climax. "Ah! there it was, waiting for him to pass that way, and
then with a shout of triumph, it would plunge him in."

He remembered old Pierre's words: "Wait till he gets caught." How he
wished he had not mocked him so. Perhaps this _feu bellanger_ was
preparing to revenge itself.

Again, the light approached. It came nearer to him than it had yet
come. The supreme moment had arrived. He already felt himself being
dipped in the stream, with no one to rescue him. Ah! the horror of
being killed by one of the devil's angels.

Here he remembered Pierre Merlin's advice: "Turn your coat sleeves
inside out and put on your garment so." Without a moment's
hesitation he divested himself of his coat. As he was turning the
sleeves, the object of his dread disappeared. A sigh of relief
escaped him.

In a minute, he had bounded over the stream and gate into the road.
He put on his coat, and was proceeding towards his home, when he
perceived the cause of his fears. It was simply a ray of light
coming through the windows of the guardian's house. He could see it
now. A woman was standing on a chair with a small lamp in her hand
seeking for something on a shelf. As she moved the lamp, the
reflection on the trees moved also.

He began to laugh. "The _feu bellanger_, forsooth. How old Pierre
would have smiled if he had beheld him taking off his coat. But the
ghost, _that_ was what puzzled him."

The ghost came bounding over the wicket and passed by him.

It was a white dog.

This adventure had taught him a great lesson. What could he say now,
he, the educated and civilized young man? No wonder if the people
who had been accustomed to hear strange tales from their earliest
infancy, believed in them.

He went home, determined to deal leniently with Pierre in the
future.

"I must have been in a dreadful state of mind to have acted thus,"
he thought. "I have done more than I ever meant to do."

When he came home, he was quite cheerful. He did not say that he had
seen a ghost, neither did he tell the spouses Merlin that he had
nearly been attacked by the _feu bellanger_.

Pierre noticed his joyous look. He gave a wink to his wife as if to
say: "He's taken a glass or two."

It was not so; the shock which he had received had completely
dislodged the la