, or child, fully aware of him and of
the dog.

Beckwith, who now had surer command of his feelings, spoke aloud
asking, "What are you doing there? What's the matter?" He had no
reply. He went one pace nearer, being still on his guard, and spoke
again. "I won't hurt you," he said. "Tell me what the matter is." The
eyes remained unwinkingly fixed upon his own. No movement of the
features could be discerned. The face, as he could now make it out,
was very small--"about as big as a big wax doll's," he says, "of a
longish oval, very pale." He adds, "I could see its neck now, no
thicker than my wrist; and where its clothes began. I couldn't see any
arms, for a good reason. I found out afterward that they had been
bound behind its back. I should have said immediately, 'That's a girl
in there,' if it had not been for one or two plain considerations. It
had not the size of what we call a girl, nor the face of what we mean
by a child. It was, in fact, neither fish, flesh, nor fowl. Strap had
known that from the beginning, and now I was of Strap's opinion
myself."

Advancing with care, a step at a time, Beckwith presently found
himself within touching distance of the creature. He was now standing
with furze half-way up his calves, right above it, stooping to look
closely at it; and as he stooped and moved, now this way, now that, to
get a clearer view, so the crouching thing's eyes gazed up to meet
his, and followed them about, as if safety lay only in that
never-shifting, fixed regard. He had noticed, and states in his
narrative, that Strap had seemed quite unable, in the same way, to
take his eyes off the creature for a single second.

He could now see that, of whatever nature it might be, it was, in form
and features, most exactly a young woman. The features, for instance,
were regular and fine. He remarks in particular upon the chin. All
about its face, narrowing the oval of it, fell dark glossy curtains of
hair, very straight and glistening with wet. Its garment was cut in a
plain circle round the neck, and short off at the shoulders, leaving
the arms entirely bare. This garment, shift, smock or gown, as he
indifferently calls it, appeared thin, and was found afterward to be
of a grey colour, soft and clinging to the shape. It was made loose,
however, and gathered in at the waist. He could not see the
creature's legs, as they were tucked under her. Her arms, it has been
related, were behind her back. The only other thing