the trail we came by."

There was indeed a faint glow in that direction, like the first
suffusion of dawn, permitting the huge shoulder of the mountain along
whose flanks they had been journeying to be distinctly seen. The sodden
breath of the stirred forest depths was slightly tainted with an acrid
fume.

"That's the match you threw away two hours ago," said the pleasant
voice deliberately. "It's caught the dry brush in the trail round the
bend."

"Anyhow, it's given us our bearings, boys," said the first speaker,
with satisfied accents. "We're all right now; and the wind's lifting
the sky ahead there. Forward now, all together, and let's get out of
this hell-hole while we can!"

It was so much lighter that the bulk of each horseman could be seen as
they moved forward together. But there was no thinning of the
obscurity on either side of them. Nevertheless the profile of the
horseman with the pleasant voice seemed to be occasionally turned
backward, and he suddenly checked his horse.

"There's the window again!" he said. "Look! There--it's gone again."

"Let it go and be d--d!" returned the leader. "Come on."

They spurred forward in silence. It was not long before the wayside
trees began to dimly show spaces between them, and the ferns to give
way to lower, thick-set shrubs, which in turn yielded to a velvety
moss, with long quiet intervals of netted and tangled grasses. The
regular fall of the horses' feet became a mere rhythmic throbbing.
Then suddenly a single hoof rang out sharply on stone, and the first
speaker reined in slightly.

"Thank the Lord we're on the ridge now! and the rest is easy. Tell you
what, though, boys, now we're all right, I don't mind saying that I
didn't take no stock in that blamed corpse light down there. If there
ever was a will-o'-the-wisp on a square up mountain, that was one. It
wasn't no window! Some of ye thought ye saw a face too--eh?"

"Yes, and a rather pretty one," said the pleasant voice meditatively.

"That's the way they'd build that sort of thing, of course. It's lucky
ye had to satisfy yourself with looking. Gosh! I feel creepy yet,
thinking of it! What are ye looking back for now like Lot's wife?
Blamed if I don't think that face bewitched ye."

"I was only thinking about that fire you started," returned the other
quietly. "I don't see it now."

"Well--if you did?"

"I was wondering whether it could reach that hollow."

"I reckon that holl