inted in circles. At the last house, opposite the
future Jewish burial-ground, two pistol-shots were fired.

The travellers turned their heads that way, and saw Mr. Mokry in his new
suit, made by the noted tailor of Besztercebanya, with his hat in one
hand, and in the other the pistol he had fired as a farewell greeting.
On the other side of the road was the dangerous windmill, its enormous
sails throwing shadows over the flowering clover-fields. Luckily it was
not moving now, and looked like an enormous fly pinned on the blue sky.

There was not a breath of wind, and the ears of wheat stood straight and
stiff, like an army of soldiers. Only the sound of the horses' hoofs was
to be heard, and the woods of Liskovina stretched before them like a
never-ending green wall.

The Third Devil

PART V

CHAPTER I.

MARIA CZOBOR'S ROSE, THE PRECIPICE, AND THE OLD PEAR-TREE.

Madame Krisbay was very much interested in the neighborhood they were
driving through, and asked many questions. They passed a small chapel in
the wood, and Veronica explained that a rich innkeeper had once been
killed there by robbers, and the bereaved widow had built this chapel on
the spot.

"Perhaps out of gratitude?" suggested Gyuri.

"Don't be so horrid," exclaimed Veronica.

The Liskovina Wood is quite like a park, with the exception that there
is not much variety in the way of trees, the birch, the favorite tree of
the Slovaks, being predominant. But of flowers there were any amount.
The ferns grew to a great height, the Anthoxantum had flowered, and in
its withered state filled the whole wood with its perfume. Among plants,
as among people, there are some which are only pleasant and agreeable
to others after their death. What a difference there is in the various
kinds of plants! There is the gladiolus, the most important part of
which is the bulb it hides under the earth; whoever eats it dreams of
the future.

Much simpler is the ox-eye daisy, for it will tell you without any
ceremonies if the person you are thinking of loves you very much, a
little, or not at all; you have only to pull off its snow-white petals
one by one, and the last one tells you the truth.

The wild pink provides food for the bee, the lily serves as a
drinking-cup for the birds, the large dandelion is the see-saw of the
butterflies. For the Liskovina woods are generous, and provide beds for
all kinds of insects, strawberries for children, nosegays for