ushed by at
that moment, slamming the door behind him and awakening over my head a
lugubrious groaning as from the twisting boughs of some old tree, that
was almost threatening in its character.

"'You had better go in,' said he, 'the rain will come next.'

"I at once leaped from my horse and pushing open the door with main
strength, entered the house. Another man met me on the threshold who
merely pointing over his shoulder to a lighted room in his rear, passed
out without a word, to help the somewhat younger man, who had first
appeared, in putting up my horse. I at once accepted his silent
invitation and stepped into the room before me. Instantly I found myself
confronted by the rather startling vision of a young girl of a unique
and haunting style of beauty, who rising at my approach now stood with
her eyes on my face and her hands resting on the deal table before which
she had been sitting, in an attitude expressive of mingled surprise
and alarm. To see a woman in that place was not so strange; but such
a woman! Even in the first casual glance I gave her, I at once
acknowledged to myself her extraordinary power. Not the slightness of
her form, the palor of her countenance, or the fairness of the locks of
golden red hair that fell in two long braids over her bosom, could for
a moment counteract the effect of her dark glance or the vivid almost
unearthly force of her expression. It was as if you saw a flame
upstarting before you, waving tremulously here and there, but burning
and resistless in its white heat. I took off my hat with deference.

"A shudder passed over her, but she made no effort to return my
acknowledgement. As we cast our eyes dilating with horror, down some
horrible pit upon whose verge we suddenly find ourselves, she allowed
her gaze for a moment to dwell upon my face, then with a sudden lifting
of her hand, pointed towards the door as if to bid me depart--when it
swung open with that shrill rushing of wind that involuntarily awakes a
shudder within you, and the two men entered and came stamping up to my
side. Instantly her hand sunk, not feebly as with fear, but calmly as if
at the bidding of her will, and without waiting for them to speak, she
turned away and quietly left the room. As the door closed upon her I
noticed that she wore a calico frock and that her face did not own one
perfect feature.

"'Go after Luttra and tell her to make up the bed in the northwest
room,' said the elder of the t