seem more intense. But no matter, she could see two steps in front of
her; and holding the lantern steadily before her, she stepped carefully
down and down, until she stood on the firm greensward of the glen. Ah!
how different everything was now from its usual aspect. The green and
gold were turned into black upon black. The laughing, dimpling,
sun-kissed water was now a black, gloomy pool, beyond which the fall
shimmered white like a water-spirit (Undine,--or was it Kuehleborn, the
malignant and vengeful sprite?). The firs stood tall and gaunt, closing
like a spectral guard about the ruined mill, and pointing their long,
dark fingers in silent menace at the intruder upon their evening repose.
Hildegarde shivered again, and held her lantern tighter, remembering how
Bubble had said that the glen was "a tormentin' spooky place after
dark." She looked fearfully about her as a low wind rustled the
branches. They bent towards her as if to clutch her; an angry whisper
seemed to pass from one to the other; and an utterly unreasoning terror
fell upon the girl. She stood for a moment as if paralyzed with fear,
when suddenly the little dog gave a sharp yelp, and leaped up on her
impatiently. The sound startled her into new terror; but in a moment the
revulsion came, and she almost laughed aloud. Here was she, a great
girl, almost a woman, cowering and shivering, while a tiny puppy, who
had hardly any brains at all, was eager to go on. She patted the dog,
and "taking herself by both ears," as she expressed it afterwards,
walked steadily forward, pushed aside the dense tangle of vines and
bushes, and stooped down to enter the black hole which led into the
vault of the mill.

A rush of cold air met her, and beat against her face like a black wing
that brushed it. It had a mouldy smell. Holding up the lantern,
Hildegarde crept as best she could through the narrow opening. A
gruesome place it was in which she found herself. Grim enough by
daylight, it was now doubly so; for the blackness seemed like something
tangible, some shapeless monster which was gathering itself together,
and shrinking back, inch by inch, as the little spark of light moved
forward. The gaunt beams, the jagged bits of iron, bent and twisted into
fantastic shapes, stretched and thrust themselves from every side, and
again the girl fancied them fleshless arms reaching out to clutch her.
But hark! was that a sound,--a faint sound from the farthest and darkest
corner