st barely three paces from where I
believed the entrance must be.

I dreaded any attempt to advance into the unknown, yet I had no
intention of withdrawing until I had accomplished that end for which I
came. To retreat was foreign to my nature; indeed, I was now so close
to Eloise, it required an effort of will to restrain a desire to rush
blindly forward. But long training overcame this rash impulse. I
rested there, silent as a savage, seeking to trace each detail of what
was barely beyond my hand. It was little enough I could distinguish,
straining my eyes to the utmost; and finally, despairing of learning
more, I advanced my hands, silently groping for something to grasp,
when I was instantly frozen into a recumbent statue by a slight
movement of something directly in front. This was so faint that, had
not my every nerve been tense, I should scarcely have noted it at all.
Yet there could be no doubt--some one had given a slight shiver, as
though from the chill of the night air; whoever it might be, the person
was not three paces from my out-stretched hands, and, as near as I
could judge, must be sitting on the very threshold of the entrance.

I was in an awkward position. How I had succeeded in arriving there
without attracting attention was little short of miraculous. I durst
not venture on any retrograde movement; I even pressed my mouth against
the hard earth, the better to deaden the sound of breathing. I know
not how long I remained thus; it was until my strained muscles appeared
to cord themselves, and I could scarcely keep back a moan of pain. Yet
no other sound came from that mysterious presence. Intently as I
listened, not so much as the faint sound of breathing reached me.
Still I could not have been deceived; there assuredly had been
movement; I distinctly felt a consciousness of other presence, so that
every nerve tingled, and it required the utmost self-control to hold me
still. I fairly throbbed with insane impulses to leap forward and
solve the mystery.

Who could be lurking there in such silence? It must assuredly be an
enemy, a guard stationed to watch over the fair prisoner within;
doubtless, he would remain until relieved by some other. What hope for
successful advance held me in such agony of mind and body? I felt that
I must relieve my cramped limbs or else scream aloud in spite of every
effort at control. Slowly I drew back, my outspread hands searching
for some hummock of gras