wrenched himself free, and ran on towards the ditch which, as he had
had occasion to remember marked the boundary of Dutch Michael's domain,
and no sooner did he spy it than he cried out with what breath he had
left in his lungs: "Dutch Michael! Master Dutch Michael!" and
immediately there stood before him the gigantic form of the raftsman,
pole in hand.

"So, you've come!" cried Michael, with a laugh. "Did they want to strip
the skin from your back in order to sell it for the benefit of your
creditors? Well, don't worry about it; as I have already told you, for
your troubles you have to thank that sanctimonious little hypocrite,
the Glassmanikin. When one gives at all, it should be with a lavish
hand, and not stingily as is that niggard's wont. But come," he
continued, turning towards the forest, "follow me to my house, and we
will see if we cannot strike a bargain."

"Strike a bargain?" thought Peter. "What can he get out of me? What
have I to offer him? Must I serve him in some way; or what else will he
require of me?"

At first, they climbed a steep incline which ended abruptly on the edge
of a dark, deep, precipitous ravine. Dutch Michael sprang down from
rock to rock as easily as down a broad staircase; and Peter nearly
fainted with terror when he perceived how the form of the demon, as
soon as the latter's foot had touched bottom, shot up to the height of
a church steeple. Then the monster stretched forth an arm as long as a
weaver's beam, and a hand as broad as a large table, crying out in a
deep voice that sounded like a death-knell: "Stand on my hand and take
hold of my fingers, so that you do not fall." Trembling all over, Peter
did as he was bid, sitting down on the palm and steadying himself by
grasping the gigantic thumb.

Deep down into the bowels of the earth he descended, but to Peter's
surprise it grew no darker; on the contrary, the daylight seemed to
become more and more intense in the ravine, until his eyes could
scarcely bear the glare of it.

As Peter descended, Dutch Michael gradually decreased in size until
when Peter had reached the ground the former had regained his normal
stature, and there they stood before a house similar in all respects to
those owned by well-to-do peasants in the Black Forest. The room, into
which Peter was conducted, differed in no particular from the rooms of
other Black Forest cottages, except that its appearance imparted a
feeling of loneliness. The wooden clo