ther than articulate
speech.

For an instant Roland felt, not his heart failing him, but the sweat
pouring from his forehead. Making an effort over himself, he regained
his voice and cried, menacingly: "For a last time, apparition or
reality, I warn you that, if you do not stop, I shall fire!"

The Shade did not heed him, but continued on its way.

Roland paused an instant to take aim. The spectre was not ten paces from
him. Roland was a sure shot; he had himself loaded his pistols, and only
a moment before he had looked to the charge to see that it was intact.

As the spectre passed, tall and white, beneath the gloomy vault of the
passage, Roland fired. The flash illumined the corridor like lightning,
down which the spectre passed with unfaltering, unhastening steps. Then
all was blacker than before. The ghost vanished in the darkness. Roland
dashed after him, changing his other pistol from the left hand to the
right. But short as his stop had been, the ghost had gained ground.
Roland saw him at the end of the passage, this time distinctly outlined
against the gray background of the night. He redoubled his pace, and as
he crossed the threshold of the passage, he fancied that the ghost was
plunging into the bowels of the earth. But the torso still remained
visible.

"Devil or not," cried Roland, "I follow you!"

He fired a second shot, which filled the cavernous space, into which the
ghost had disappeared, with flame and smoke.

When the smoke had cleared away, Roland looked vainly around. He was
alone. He sprang into the cistern howling with rage. He sounded the
walls with the butt-end of his pistol, he stamped on the ground; but
everywhere, earth and stone gave back the sound of solid objects. He
tried to pierce the darkness, but it was impossible. The faint moonlight
that filtered into the cistern died out at the first steps.

"Oh!" cried Roland, "a torch! a torch!"

No one answered. The only sound to be heard was the spring bubbling
close at hand. Realizing that further search would be useless, he
emerged from the cavern. Drawing a powder-horn and two balls from his
pocket, he loaded his pistols hastily. Then he took the path along which
he had just come, found the dark passage, then the vast refectory, and
again took his place at the end of the silent hall and waited.

But the hours of the night sounded successively, until the first gleam
of dawn cast its pallid light upon the walls of the cloister.

"