but still there was a dead stillness. At length he said again, "Whoever
you may be, and especially if your designs be evil and unlawful, you had
better beware; I am well armed, and both able and determined to defend
myself; if money is your object, pass on, for I have none about me."

Again there was the silence, as there was the darkness of the grave. He
now resumed his former pace, and the noise of footsteps, evidently and
distinctly different from his own, were once more heard near him. Those
that accompanied him fell upon his ear with a light, but strange and
chilling sound, that filled him with surprise, and something like awe.
In fact, he had never heard anything similar to it before. It was very
strange, he thought, for the sounds, though light, were yet as distinct
and well-defined as his own. He still held a pistol in each hand, and as
he had no means of unravelling this mystery so long as he was inwrapped
in such Cimmerian gloom, he resolved to accelerate his pace and get into
the light of the moon as soon as he could. He accordingly did so; but
the footsteps, although they fell not now so quickly as his own, still
seemed to maintain the same distance from him as before. This certainly
puzzled him; and he was attempting, if possible, to solve this new
difficulty, when he found himself emerging from the darkness, and in
a few moments standing in the light of the moon. He immediately looked
about him, but except the usual inanimate objects of nature, he could
see nothing. Whatever it is, thought he, or, rather, whoever it is, he
has thought proper to remain undiscovered in the darkness. I shall now
bid him good-night, and proceed on my way home. He accordingly moved
on once more, when, to his utter astonishment, he heard the footsteps
again, precisely within the same distance of him as before.

"Tut," said he, "I now perceive what the matter with me is. This is a
mere hallucination, occasioned by a disordered state of the nerves; and
as he spoke he returned his pistols into his breast pockets, where
he usually wore them, and once more resumed his journey. There
was, however, something in the sound of the footsteps--something so
hollow--so cold, as it were, and so unearthly, that he could not throw
off the unaccountable impression which it made upon him, infidel and
sceptic as he was upon all supernatural intimations and appearances. At
length, he proceeded, or rather they proceeded, onward until he arrived
wit