ty. Then the express train could run through directly,
instead of being obliged to shunt backwards and forwards in a way that
made it very uncomfortable for people who did not like sitting with
their backs to the engine.

The young engineer, Karl Hammerstein, who had been supervising the
men's work, was glad enough to find himself in the fresh air. His head
ached violently, the oppression of the atmosphere had well-nigh
overpowered him.

The mountain was clothed on this side with tall forest trees; the
drooping firs offered an inviting shade. It was seven o'clock in the
evening, the men were packing up their tools to go home. They would be
obliged to march back through the tunnel; for there was no way round,
except through the wildest forest with a tangled undergrowth of brambles
and ferns. But they had their lamps, and did not mind the tunnel; it was
familiar enough to them, who had worked in it for months.

Meanwhile Karl, who was dead-beat, stretched himself out under the
trees, covered himself with his cloak, and fell fast asleep, meaning
only to rest a minute or two, before he also set off home.

It was late when he awoke; the full moon was shining. He felt quite
dazed. Where could he be?

He had slept in many queer little rooms when he was travelling; but they
always had a window and a door. Where was the window? Ugh--he
shivered--it was cold. Then an unreasoning terror took hold of him: he
was only half-awake as yet. What could that dreadful gap be in the wall
of his room, blacker than the darkness? Surely it was a bogey hole
leading down to the bottomless pit? The next minute he laughed at his
fears, as we usually do when we come safely out of nightmare land and
feel the earth--or bed beneath us again.

He saw that it was the mouth of the tunnel, and glancing up he saw the
giant fir-tree under which he had been sleeping with outstretched arms
above him in the light of the moon.

"Well--I never! what a dunderhead I am!" he said to himself--"fancy
sleeping like that, why such a thing has never happened to me before! I
had meant to go to have supper and stay the night at the new hotel in
Elm. I have heard the landlord's daughter is an uncommonly pretty girl!"

"Heigho!" he went on, stretching himself, "there's nothing for it, but
to walk home. I might wait a long time before a motor-car came to pick
me up here!"

Then he remembered with a sudden start that there was only one possible
way back to Elm, and