he rock was undoubtedly
solid. The shrubs that grew upon it, the great crevices and clefts,
were all real. I knew--though I had a hard struggle to make myself
believe--that it was all a marvellous and indescribable delusion, for
there could be no cliff where only a few seconds before there had been
a mighty, rushing torrent.

And yet I could have planted finger and foot on the ledges of that
solid precipice and climbed to the invisible summit. Hilderman was
muttering to himself beneath his breath, but I was too dazed, my brain
was too numbed to make any sense out of the confused mumble of words
which came from him. Dennis held my arm in a vice-like grip that
stopped the circulation, and almost made me cry out with the pain.

Hilderman staggered, his arm over his eyes, across the stepping-stones
to the side of the stream. I found my voice at last.

"Dennis!" I shouted at the top of my voice, though why I should have
shouted I can never explain, for my friend was standing just beside
me. "Dennis, come away, man. Get out of this!"

I exerted my strength to the uttermost, but Dennis was immovable,
rooted to the spot by the strange, snake-like fascination of the
nightmare. Then, as suddenly as it had arisen, the rock disappeared
again, and there before our startled gaze was a peacefully flowing
river. Dennis turned to me with a face as white as a sheet.

"The place is haunted," he said, with a somewhat hysterical laugh.

"Let's get away from it and sit down, and think it over," I urged,
pulling him away. We made for the side of the river and sat down, at
a very safe distance from the bank. I rolled up my sleeve, and had a
look at my arm.

"Great Scott!" Dennis exclaimed, as I dangled the pinched and purple
limb painfully. "What on earth did that?"

"I'm afraid it was your own delicate touch and dainty caress that did
it, old man. You seized hold of me as if you hadn't seen me for years,
and I owed you a thousand pounds."

"Ron, my dear fellow," he said penitently, "I'm most awfully sorry.
Why didn't you shout?"

I burst out laughing.

"I entered a protest in vigorous terms, but you were otherwise engaged
at the moment, and, anyway, don't look so scared about it, old man;
it'll be quite all right in a minute."

Poor Dennis was quite upset at the evidence I bore of his absorption
in the miracle, and we postponed our discussion while he massaged the
injured arm in order to restore the flow of blood.

"Where's H