cts is dimly discernible; not articles of furniture, for
these are few, but things appertaining to the craft in which Shebotha is
supposed to have skill--demonology. There are the bones and skins of
monkeys, with those of snakes, lizards, and other reptiles; teeth of the
alligator and jaguar; the proboscis-like snouts of the _tapir_ and
_tamanoir_, or great ant-bear, with a variety of other like oddities,
furnished by the indigenous creatures of the Chaco in every department
of the zoological world--birds, quadrupeds, insects, reptiles, and
fishes.

This motley conglomeration is for the most part arranged against the
inner wall of the hut, and opposite the entrance, so as to be observable
by any one looking in at the door, or even passing by it. For its
purpose is to impress the superstitious victims of Shebotha's craft with
a belief in her witching ways. And to give this a more terrifying and
supernatural character, a human skull, representing a death's head, with
a pair of tibia for crossbones underneath, is fixed centrally and
prominently against the wall.

The same light that so faintly illuminates this paraphernalia of
repulsive objects, also shines upon one that is pleasing--this the
figure of a young girl, with a face wonderfully fair. For she is
Francesca Halberger.

At the hour spoken of she is the sole occupant of the hut; its owner,
Shebotha, being abroad. For it is the self-same hour and instant when
the sorceress has the rosary of teeth snatched so rudely from her neck.
She is seated on the edge of a _catre_, or cane bedstead, of the pallet
kind, her head buried in her hands, through the white fingers of which
her long golden tresses fall in rich profusion, scattered over and
mingling with the fur of the great pampas wolf which serves as a sort of
mattress for the bed.

The candle has burnt down into the socket of its rude stick, but at
intervals flares up, with a crackling, sputtering noise; as it it does
so, showing upon her features that same sad look as when she was being
carried hither, a captive; only that her face is now paler, and the
expression upon it telling of a despair deeper and more settled. She
has slept but little from the day of her entrance under Shebotha's roof,
and no great deal since she last lay on her own bed at home. What sleep
she now gets is only in short snatches; when tired nature can no longer
continue the struggle with thoughts all the while torturing her. No
wond