the sand--and there are no hyenas sniffing about it!"

The stair, narrow and steep, led straight up from the room to an
unceiled and unpartitioned garret, with one wide, low dormer window.
Close under the sloping roof stood a narrow bed, the sight of which with
its white coverlet made me shiver, so vividly it recalled the couches in
the chamber of death. On the table was a dry loaf, and beside it a cup
of cold water. To me, who had tasted nothing but fruit for months, they
were a feast.

"I must leave you in the dark," my hostess called from the bottom of the
stair. "This lantern is all the light I have, and there are things to do
to-night."

"It is of no consequence, thank you, madam," I returned. "To eat and
drink, to lie down and sleep, are things that can be done in the dark."

"Rest in peace," she said.

I ate up the loaf, drank the water every drop, and laid myself down.
The bed was hard, the covering thin and scanty, and the night cold: I
dreamed that I lay in the chamber of death, between the warrior and the
lady with the healing wound.

I woke in the middle of the night, thinking I heard low noises of wild
animals.

"Creatures of the desert scenting after me, I suppose!" I said to
myself, and, knowing I was safe, would have gone to sleep again. But
that instant a rough purring rose to a howl under my window, and I
sprang from my bed to see what sort of beast uttered it.

Before the door of the cottage, in the full radiance of the moon, a tall
woman stood, clothed in white, with her back toward me. She was stooping
over a large white animal like a panther, patting and stroking it with
one hand, while with the other she pointed to the moon half-way up the
heaven, then drew a perpendicular line to the horizon. Instantly the
creature darted off with amazing swiftness in the direction indicated.
For a moment my eyes followed it, then sought the woman; but she was
gone, and not yet had I seen her face! Again I looked after the animal,
but whether I saw or only fancied a white speck in the distance, I could
not tell.--What did it mean? What was the monster-cat sent off to do? I
shuddered, and went back to my bed. Then I remembered that, when I lay
down in the sandy hollow outside, the moon was setting; yet here
she was, a few hours after, shining in all her glory! "Everything is
uncertain here," I said to myself, "--even the motions of the heavenly
bodies!"

I learned afterward that there were several moons