on a chill, frosty January night,
Cuthbert and Cherry stood before a small, narrow house in Budge
Row--a house that seemed to be jammed in between its two
neighbours, and almost crushed by their overhanging gables and
heavy beams; and Cherry, with a trembling hand, gave a peculiar
knock, thrice repeated, upon the stout panels of the narrow door,
that at the third summons opened slowly and noiselessly, as if
without any human agency.

The dark passage thus revealed to view was black as pitch, and
Cuthbert involuntarily recoiled. But Cherry had been here before,
and knew the place, and laid her hand upon his arm.

"Courage!" she said, in a voice that quivered with excitement and
not with fear; "it is always so here. Walk boldly in; there is
naught to hurt us. When the door has closed we shall see a light."

Stepping across the threshold, and keeping fast hold of Cherry's
arm, his quick glance roving from side to side in search of any
possible foe lurking in the shadows, Cuthbert entered this strange
abode, and felt rather than saw that the door closed noiselessly
behind them, whilst he heard the shooting of a heavy bolt, and
turned with a start, for it seemed impossible that this could have
been done without some human hand to accomplish the deed. But his
sense of touch assured him that he and Cherry were the only persons
at this end of the narrow passage, and with a light shiver at the
uncanny occurrence, he made up his mind to follow this adventure to
the end.

"See, there is the light!" whispered Cherry, who was quivering with
excitement. "That is the sign that the wise woman is ready. We have
to follow it. It will lead us to her."

The light was dim enough, but it showed plainly in the pitchy
darkness of the passage, and seemed to be considerably above them.

"We must mount the stairs," whispered Cherry, feeling her way
cautiously to the foot of the rickety flight; and the cousins
mounted carefully, the dun light, which they did not see--only the
reflections it cast brightening the dimness--going on before, until
they reached an upper chamber, the door of which stood wide open, a
soft radiance shining out, whilst a strange monotonous chanting was
heard within.

Upon the threshold of the room stood a huge black cat with
bristling tail and fiery eyes. It seemed as though he would dispute
the entrance of the strangers, and Cuthbert said to himself that he
had never seen an uglier-looking brute of the kind since