eep, slippery path and the narrow, rotten wooden
steps which led from terrace to terrace.

The strange men thought it too delightfully funny that she ran from
them. They could not resist pretending that they wished to catch
her. One of them climbed up on the railing, and all three shouted
with a terrible voice.

Edith ran as one runs in dreams, panting, falling, terrified to
death, with a horrible feeling of not getting away from one spot.
All sorts of emotions stormed through her, and shook her so that
she thought she was going to die. Yes, if one of those men laid his
hand on her, she knew that she should die. When she had reached the
highest terrace, and dared to look back, she found that the men
were still in the street, and were no longer looking at her. Then
she threw herself down on the ground, quite powerless. The exertion
had been greater than she could bear. She felt something burst in
her. Then blood streamed from her lips.

She was found by the maids as they went home from the milking. She
was then half dead. For the moment she was brought back to life,
but no one dared to hope that she could live long.

She could not talk that day enough to tell in what way she had been
frightened. Had she done so, it is uncertain if the strange men had
come alive from the town. They fared badly enough as it was. For
after Petter Nord had come out to them again, and had told them
that Halfvorson was not at home, all four of them in good accord
went out through the gates, and found a sunny slope where they
could sleep away the time until the shopman returned.

But in the afternoon, when all the men of the town, who had been
working in the fields, came home again, the women told them about
the tramps' visit, about their threatening questions in the shop
where they had bought the beer, and about all their boisterous
behavior. The women exaggerated and magnified everything, for they
had sat at home and frightened one another the whole afternoon.
Their husbands believed that their houses and homes were in danger.
They determined to capture the disturbers of the peace, found a
stout-hearted man to lead them, took thick cudgels with them and
started off.

The whole town was alive. The women came out on their doorsteps and
frightened one another. It was both terrible and exciting.

Before long the captors returned with their game. They had them all
four. They had made a ring round them while they slept and captured
them.