n away intruders. Beside this was the rock where his adventure
must terminate.

With more of desperation than courage he scrambled through the bushes.
Not daring to look behind him--for he felt as though his steps were
dogged, an idea for which he could not account--he made his way with
difficulty by the crag until he came to a fallen tree that had
apparently tumbled from the rock. Laying hold of the trunk he whistled
faintly. It was answered; an echo, or something even more indistinct,
gave back the sound. His heart misgave him; but he stood committed to
the task, and durst not withdraw. Again he whistled, but louder than
before, and again it was repeated. With feelings akin to those of the
condemned wretch when he drops the fatal handkerchief, he sounded the
last note of the signal. His breath was suspended. Suddenly he felt the
ground give way beneath his feet, and he was precipitated into a chasm,
dark, and by no means soft at the nether extremity.

This was a reception for which he was not prepared. He had sustained a
severe shock; but luckily his bones were whole. Recovering from his
alarm, he heard a low jabbering noise, and presently a light, which, it
seems, had been extinguished by his clumsiness, was again approaching.

The intruder saw, with indescribable horror, a hideous black dwarf
bearing a torch. He was dressed in the Eastern fashion. A soiled turban,
torn and dilapidated, and a vest of crimson, showed symptoms of former
splendour that no art could restore. This mysterious being came near,
muttering some uncouth and unintelligible jargon; while the unfortunate
captive, caught like a wolf in a trap, looked round in vain for some
outlet whereby to escape. The only passage, except the hole through
which he had tumbled, was completely filled by the broad, unwieldy lump
of deformity that was coming towards him. The latter now surveyed him
cautiously, and at a convenient distance, croaking, in a broken and
foreign accent--

"What ho! Prisoner, by queen's grace. Better stop when little door shall
open. Steps, look thee, for climb; hands and toes; go to."

Gregory now saw that steps, or rather holes, were cut in the sides of
the pit wherein he had fallen, or rather been entrapped. These he ought
to have used when the trap-door was let down; and he remembered his
mistress's caution, to hold fast by the tree. There were, however, no
means of escape that way, as the door had closed with his descent.

The ugl