t before, it had appeared to
flash across the heavens in one great lighthouse ray, concentrated
through the loop above the pillar, and there this night also the ray ran
far above us like a lance of fire. But now that we were nearer to its
fount we found ourselves bathed in a soft, mysterious radiance like that
of the phosphorescence on a summer sea, reflected downwards perhaps from
the clouds and massy rock roof of the column loop and diffused by the
snows beneath.

This unearthly glimmer, faint as it was, helped us much, indeed but for
it we must have been overtaken, for here the ground was very rough, full
of holes also made by burrowing marmots. Thus in our extremity help did
come to us from the Mountain, until at length the moon rose, when as
quickly as they had appeared the volcanic fires vanished, leaving behind
them nothing but the accustomed pillar of dull red smoke.

It is a commonplace to speak of the music of hounds at chase, but often
I have wondered how that music sounds in the ears of the deer or the fox
fleeing for its life.

Now, when we filled the place of the quarry, it was my destiny to solve
this problem, and I assert with confidence that the progeny of earth
can produce no more hideous noise. It had come near to us, and in the
desolate silence of the night the hellish harmonies of its volume
seemed terrific, yet I could discern the separate notes of which it was
composed, especially one deep, bell-like bay.

I remembered that I had heard this bay when we sat in the boat upon the
river and saw that poor noble done to death for the crime of loving the
Khania. As the hunt passed us then I observed that it burst from
the throat of the leading hound, a huge brute, red in colour, with
a coal-black ear, fangs that gleamed like ivory, and a mouth which
resembled a hot oven. I even knew the name of the beast, for afterwards
the Khan, whose peculiar joy it was, had pointed it out to me. He called
it Master, because no dog in the pack dared fight it, and told me that
it could kill an armed man alone.

Now, as its baying warned us, Master was not half a mile away!

The coming of the moonlight enabled us to gallop faster, especially as
here the ground was smooth, being covered with a short, dry turf, and
for the next two hours we gained upon the pack. Yes, it was only two
hours, or perhaps less, but it seemed a score of centuries. The slopes
of the Peak were now not more than ten miles ahead, but our horse