hen I heard steps behind me, and lo! there
was the hideous elf running after me on all fours, his physical
conformation rendering this mode of progression the easiest. I started,
and my blood ran cold.

"What do you want?" I asked, angrily, still striding on.

But it was useless. Raising himself on his short legs, he beckoned to
me, and I immediately felt myself spellbound.

"Follow me," he signed with a gesture.

"I do not want a guide," I replied. "I am neither in search of crystals,
fossils, nor of shining stones; no, nor even of gold."

"Never mind," he seemed to say; "come all the same; I will show you what
the earthquake has done."

"I am much obliged to you; but I have seen enough of the earthquake, and
I repeat I do not want a guide."

"I do not want your money; I will follow you for friendship," he
appeared to say.

"Not even for friendship," I said; "I prefer to walk alone."

"What!" he intimated, "when you can get a companion for nothing?"

"Don't you see, my good man," said I, "that your presence is a bore to
me--that I'd rather be alone?"

"Nevertheless, yesterday evening you were glad enough of a guide, and I
asked you for no reward for my trouble," he seemed to say with his eye.

"It is false," I replied; "I did not want a guide. I could have found
the hut myself."

"That is ungrateful," he said, in his dumb manner. "Did you not ask me?"

"If I asked you," I replied, "I did so for the sake of not passing you
without a word; besides, I offered you money, and you refused it. I
won't be under any obligation to you," said I. "Here, take your nuggets;
I want them not," and I threw them at him. "I'll have nothing to do with
one who feigns to be dumb in the daytime, and yet can talk well enough
at night."

The cretin gazed scrutinisingly at me for some time, as much as to say,
"Ha! ha! my friend, you have overheard my discourse. I thought as much,
but no matter; escape me if you can."

He then walked rapidly on in front of me with his short legs, every now
and then beckoning to me with his long arms, and I immediately felt
myself impelled by a power not my own, and found myself forced to follow
the wretch in spite of all my efforts.

"I will not, I will _not_ follow you like a victim to the altar," I
cried, straining every nerve to control myself. "Vile gnome, thou shalt
_not_ feast on _my_ blood!"

The fiend nodded his huge head slowly with a complacent smile, as if to
say, "We shall see,