e voice of my spirit, and so alarm the victim in
whose chamber it sleeps, and scare him into flight.

"Therefore my discourse must be brief. There is no time to be lost. At
once ye must commence to stir up the internal fires in this earth's
centre, and cause a powerful earthquake. The external crust which these
mortals inhabit must crack and gape into chasms. I will lead him into
the mountains to-morrow when he will be your prey; till then, farewell."

No sooner had the orator concluded his harangue than I began to feel a
curious sensation. It was as if the floor on which I had been lying were
lifted up under me, and I felt myself rolling from side to side, much in
the same manner as if I were at sea. This motion continued and
increased, and was accompanied by a low rumbling sound. After a time
this grew louder, and I heard an explosion, and then a heavy crash, as
if the mountains were being riven asunder, and were now toppling
headlong into the valleys, sweeping away whole villages with a force
inconceivable.

The whole chalet rocked like an open boat in a storm. I was panic
struck, and trembled in every limb. It was then really true all that I
had seen and heard; it was no disordered dream. The gnomes were really
at work.

Louder and louder grew the rumbling. Crash followed upon crash. All the
inmates of the chalet were aroused, and screams of women and children
resounded from every quarter. I sprang to my feet, hurriedly donned my
coat and boots, and rushed out of the hut, but my fiendish companion was
at my heels.

Upon gaining the outside of the cottage I found the face of the country
much changed. Huge crags had been loosened, and tumbled quite close to
us. Many chalets had been completely crushed under them, and as far as
the eye could see all was one scene of desolation.

The terror and the consternation of my poor hostess was pitiable. She
gathered her children together as a hen gathers her chickens under her
wings, and remained stupefied with despair.

As for myself, having escaped the danger of being crushed alive, my only
thought now was to escape my tormentor in the best way I could. The
earthquake was at an end, so I strode on in the direction I had followed
on the previous day, taking advantage of the momentary absence of the
dwarf, who had entered the hut for some purpose or other, and imagined
for a moment that I should not be overtaken. Alas! vain hope; hardly had
I proceeded for ten minutes, w