It seemed to have a wild, contrary
kind of life in it. Once or twice I came near to dropping it into the
lane, which would have been the end of everything. When I got it across,
the end caught on the window ledge for about ten perilous minutes.

I was quite tired out before I got it properly across with two feet of
the end in the other house. I did not at all look forward to the job
of getting it back again after my trip. One plank was hardly safe, I
thought; so I slid a second over it, without much trouble. It seemed
firm enough then for anybody, no matter how heavy. So carefully I
straddled across it, hopping forward a little at a time, as though I
were playing leap-frog. When once I had started, I was much too nervous
to go back. My head was strong enough. I was well used to being high up
in trees. But the danger of this adventure made me dizzy. At every hop
the two planks clacked together. I could feel the upper plank shaking
out behind me a little to one side of the other. Then a tired waterman
shambled slowly up from the river, carrying his oars. He passed
underneath me, while I was in mid-air. It was lucky for me, I thought,
that few people when walking look above their own heads. He passed on
without seeing me. I waited up aloft till he had gone, feeling my head
grow dizzier at each second. I was, I trust, truly thankful when I was
able to dive down over the window-sill into the strange house. When I
had rested for a moment, I felt that it was not so difficult after all.
"Going back," I said to myself, "will be much less ticklish." Turning
my head, I saw the eyes of the devil-face glaring at me. They smelt very
strongly of kitchen tallow.

I was not in the least frightened. I crept cautiously along the floor,
on tip-toe, to examine the contrivance. A hollow shaft of light wood,
a sort of big wooden pipe, led down through the floor, probably to the
ground-floor or basement, much as a mast goes down through a ship's
decks into the hold. It was slowly revolving, being worked by some
simple, not very strong mill-contrivance downstairs. A shelf had been
fixed up inside the pipe. On the shelf (as I could see by looking in)
was a tallow candle in a sconce. Two oval bits of red glass, let into
the wood, made the eyes of this lantern-devil. The mouth was a smear of
some gleaming stuff, evidently some chemical. This was all the monster
which had frightened me. The clacking noise was made by the machine
which moved it rou