you want to come. Time presses.'

"I was determined to be of the fray; my blood was up. I have hinted that
the baron's Tokay had stirred it.

"I went to my room and hurriedly donned clothes more suitable for rough
night work. My last care was to slip into my pockets a brace of
double-barreled pistols which formed part of my traveling kit. When I
returned I found the baron already booted and spurred; this without
metaphor. He was stretched full length on the divan, and did not speak as
I came in, or even look at me. Chewing an unlit cigar, with eyes fixed on
the ceiling, he was evidently following some absorbing train of ideas.

"The silence was profound; time went by; it grew oppressive; at length,
wearied out, I fell, over my chibouque, into a doze filled with puzzling
visions, out of which I was awakened with a start. My companion had sprung
up, very lightly, to his feet. In his throat was an odd, half-suppressed
cry, grewsome to hear. He stood on tiptoe, with eyes fixed, as though
looking through the wall, and I distinctly saw his ears point in the
intensity of his listening.

"After a moment, with hasty, noiseless energy, and without the slightest
ceremony, he blew the lamps out, drew back the heavy curtains and threw
the tall window wide open. A rush of icy air, and the bright rays of the
moon--gibbous, I remember, in her third quarter--filled the room. Outside
the mist had condensed, and the view was unrestricted over the white
plains at the foot of the hill.

"The baron stood motionless in the open window, callous to the cold in
which, after a minute, I could hardly keep my teeth from chattering, his
head bent forward, still listening. I listened too, with 'all my ears,'
but could not catch a sound; indeed the silence over the great expanse of
snow might have been called awful; even the dogs were mute.

"Presently, far, far away, came a faint tinkle of bells; so faint, at
first, that I thought it was but fancy, then distincter. It was even more
eerie than the silence, I thought, though I knew it could come but from
some passing sleigh. All at once that ceased, and again my duller senses
could perceive nothing, though I saw by my host's craning neck that he was
more on the alert than ever. But at last I too heard once more, this time
not bells, but as it were the tread of horses muffled by the snow,
intermittent and dull, yet drawing nearer. And then in the inner silence
of the great house it seemed to me I c