could, and in a manner as little agitating
to himself as possible; threatening at the same time, though I had no
intention of doing so, to leave him at once, in case he again gave way
to such passionate excitement.

'It's only foolishness,' he continued, 'for me to try to thank you for
coming to such a villain as myself at all. It's no use for me to wish
good to you, or to bless you; for such as me has no blessings to give.'

I told him that I had but done my duty, and urged him to proceed to the
matter which weighed upon his mind. He then spoke nearly as follows:

'I came in drunk on Friday night last, and got to my bed here; I don't
remember how. Sometime in the night it seemed to me I wakened, and
feeling unasy in myself, I got up out of the bed. I wanted the fresh
air; but I would not make a noise to open the window, for fear I'd waken
the crathurs. It was very dark and throublesome to find the door; but
at last I did get it, and I groped my way out, and went down as asy as I
could. I felt quite sober, and I counted the steps one after another, as
I was going down, that I might not stumble at the bottom.

'When I came to the first landing-place--God be about us always!--the
floor of it sunk under me, and I went down--down--down, till the senses
almost left me. I do not know how long I was falling, but it seemed to
me a great while. When I came rightly to myself at last, I was sitting
near the top of a great table; and I could not see the end of it, if it
had any, it was so far off. And there was men beyond reckoning, sitting
down all along by it, at each side, as far as I could see at all. I
did not know at first was it in the open air; but there was a close
smothering feel in it that was not natural. And there was a kind of
light that my eyesight never saw before, red and unsteady; and I did not
see for a long time where it was coming from, until I looked straight
up, and then I seen that it came from great balls of blood-coloured
fire that were rolling high over head with a sort of rushing, trembling
sound, and I perceived that they shone on the ribs of a great roof of
rock that was arched overhead instead of the sky. When I seen this,
scarce knowing what I did, I got up, and I said, "I have no right to
be here; I must go." And the man that was sitting at my left hand only
smiled, and said, "Sit down again; you can NEVER leave this place." And
his voice was weaker than any child's voice I ever heerd; and when he