stood panting upon the edge of the wood, out of the wind, which roared
away overhead. He twittered with his foolish lips, not knowing what on
earth to do, nor daring to do anything had he known it; but all the
prayers he had ever learned were driven clean out of his head.

He could dimly make out the tree-trunks immediately before him, low
bushes, shelves of bracken-fern; he could pierce somewhat into the
gloom beyond and see the solemn trees ranked in their order, and above
them a great soft blackness rent here and there to show the sky. The
volleying of the storm sounded like the sea heard afar off: it was so
remote and steady a noise that lesser sounds were discernible--the
rustlings, squeakings, and snappings of small creatures moving over
small undergrowth. Every one of these sent his heart leaping to his
mouth; but all his fears were to be swallowed up in amazement, for as
he stood there distracted, without warning, without shock, there stood
one by him, within touching distance, a child, as he judged it, with
loose hair and bright eyes, prying into his face, smiling at him and
inviting him to come on.

"Who in God's name--?" cried Andrew King; but the child plucked him
by the coat and tried to draw him into the wood.

I understand that he did not hesitate. If he had forgotten his gods he
had not forgotten his fairy-wife. I suppose, too, that he knew where
to look for her; he may have supposed that she had been resumed into
her first state. At any rate, he made his way into the forest by
guess-work, aided by reminiscence. I believe he was accustomed to aver
that he "knew where she was very well," and that he took a straight
line to her. I have seen Knapp Forest and doubt it. He did, however,
find himself in the dark spaces of the wood and there, sure enough, he
did also see the women with whom his Mabilla had once been co-mate.
They came about him, he said, like angry cats, hissing and shooting
out their lips. They did not touch him; but if eyes and white hateful
faces could have killed him, dead he had been then and there.

He called upon God and Christ and made a way through them. His senses
had told him where Mabilla was. He found her pale and trembling in an
aisle of the trees. She leaned against a tall tree, perfectly rigid,
"as cold as a stone," staring across him with frozen eyes, her mouth
open like a round O. He took her in his arms and holding her close
turned and defied the "witches"--so he called