errific thunder-gust. The maiden was
gone, the black cloud swept over the moon, and Lek could no longer
discern the town in the valley. Everything around him grew dark. The
air seemed to turn into a thick inky darkness.

Fearful flashes of lightning and terrific thunder followed. The
wind bent the forest before it; but not a drop of rain fell.

There was a moment's silence. The bell in the mysterious steeple
smote upon the air. It was midnight.

Another hush, as though Nature had ceased to breathe. Then a
thunder-crash shook the hills, and seemed to cleave open the very
earth.

Lek crossed himself and fell upon his knees. The cloud passed
swiftly. The moon came out again, revealing the lovely valley. _The
village was gone._

In the morning a cowherd came up the hill at the rising of the sun.

"Good morrow," said Lek. "That was a fearful tempest that we had at
midnight."

"I never heard such thunder," said the cowherd. "I almost thought
that the final day had come. You may well say it was a fearful
night, my boy."

[Illustration: THE NECKAR.]

"But what has become of the village that was in the valley
yesterday?" asked Lek.

"There is no village in the valley," said the cowherd. "There never
was but one. That was sunk hundreds of years ago; if you saw any
village there yesterday it was that: it comes up only once in a
hundred years, and then it remains for only a single day. Woe betide
the traveller that stops there _that_ day. Unless he have a true
heart, he goes down with the town at midnight. The town was cursed
because it waxed rich, and became so wicked that there was found in
it but one heart that was true."

"Tell me about this strange village," said Lek, in fear and awe,
recalling his adventure. "I never before heard of a thing so
mysterious."

"It is a sorry story. I will tell it as I have heard it.

"The hills of Reichmanndorf used to abound with gold, and the people
of the old town all became rich; but their riches did not make them
happy and contented. It made them untrue.

"The more their wealth increased, the more unfaithful they became,
until the men met in the market-place daily to defraud each other,
and the women's only purpose in life was to display their vanity.

"At the inn were nightly carousals. The young men thought only of
their gains and dissipations. Men were untrue to their families, and