underneath the castle. And now the pastor suddenly remembered he had
left the key of this gate in the greenhouse. There was nothing for it
but to retrace their steps. Just as they reached the threshold,
however, Michael suggested that something very hard was pressing
against his side. Could it be the key which was, after all, in his
reverence's pocket? This suggestion proved correct, and once more he
had to run the gantlet of the old crusaders and their contemptuous
superiority.

The key creaked as it turned in the lock, and a heavy, damp smell
struck upon them as they passed through the iron gate.

"Leave the door open," said the pastor, with an eye to securing a safe
retreat.

And now they began to descend the steps, Herr Mahok remarking that his
horse was not too sure-footed. He tottered in going down the steps so
much that the pastor, in his fright, caught him with his left hand
tightly by the collar, while he pressed the other more closely round
his throat, a proceeding which Michael resented by calling out, in a
strangled voice:

"Reverend sir, don't squeeze me so; I am suffocating!"

"What was that?"

A black object whizzed past them, circling round their heads. A bat,
the well-known attendant upon ghosts!

"We shall be there in a few minutes," said the clerk, to encourage his
rider, whose teeth chattered audibly.

While they were descending the steps the noise in the vault had been
less audible, but now, as they came into the passages which ran
underneath the hall, it broke out again in the most horrible discord.
The passage was long, and there were two wings; one led to the cellars
proper, the other to the vaults. Opposite to the steps there was a
cross passage, at the end of which, by ascending some seven or eight
steps and passing through a lattice door, you could get into the open
air. This lattice served likewise as a means of ventilating the
passages, and on this particular night there was such a strong current
of air that the light in the lantern was in danger every minute of
being blown out. It would have been well if that were all. The
sacristan hadn't taken three steps in the direction of the vault
before a terrible sight revealed itself to both men.

At the other end of the passage a blue flame burned; before the flame
there stood, or sat, or jumped, a dwarfish figure all in white. It was
not three feet in height, and, nevertheless, its head was of monstrous
size. As the sacristan, with