he stopped up the windows like one does when
assailed by an enemy.

But the person outside now uttered long, plaintive, mournful groans, to
which the young man replied by similar groans, and thus days and nights
passed, without their ceasing to howl at each other. The one was
continually walking round the house, and scraped the walls with his
nails so vigorously that it seemed as if he wished to destroy them,
while the other, inside, followed all his movements, stooping down, and
holding his ear to the walls, and replying to all his appeals with
terrible cries. One evening, however, Ulrich heard nothing more, and he
sat down, so overcome by fatigue, that he went to sleep immediately, and
awoke in the morning without a thought, without any recollection of what
had happened, just as if his head had been emptied during his heavy
sleep, but he felt hungry, and he ate.

The winter was over, and the Gemmi pass was practicable again, so the
Hauser family started off to return to their inn. As soon as they had
reached the top of the ascent, the women mounted their mule, and spoke
about the two men who they would meet again shortly. They were, indeed,
rather surprised that neither of them had come down a few days before,
as soon as the road became usable, in order to tell them all about their
long winter sojourn. At last, however, they saw the inn, still covered
with snow, like a quilt. The door and the window were closed, but a
little smoke was coming out of the chimney, which reassured old Hauser;
on going up to the door, however, he saw the skeleton of an animal which
had been torn to pieces by the eagles, a large skeleton lying on its
side.

They all looked closely at it, and the mother said: "That must be Sam,"
and then she shouted: "Hi! Gaspard!" A cry from the interior of the
house answered her, and a sharp cry, that one might have thought some
animal had uttered it. Old Hauser repeated: "Hi! Gaspard!" and they
heard another cry, similar to the first.

Then the three men, the father and the two sons, tried to open the door,
but it resisted their efforts. From the empty cow-stall they took a beam
to serve as a battering-ram, and hurled it against the door with all
their might. The wood gave way, and the boards flew into splinters; then
the house was shaken by a loud voice, and inside, behind the sideboard,
which was overturned, they saw a man standing upright, with his hair
falling onto his shoulders, and a beard desc