big fire of logs, but the cabin was perfectly bare of furniture, save for the two square blocks of stone, roughly trimmed, one on each side of the fireplace.

The hussar took his seat on one of these, and dried himself at the fire, not without some trepidation, it must be owned. He was in the supposed stronghold of the very demon that he had seen with his own eyes the night before, and he knew not at what moment he might behold that terrible form darken the doorway, and be engaged in a contest for life with the terrible enigma.

But as time wore on, and nothing appeared, while the rain descended in torrents overhead, and the fire hissed and sputtered as it struggled against the tempest, the hussar’s spirits insensibly rose, and with them his curiosity. He began to long to see the fairy form of Diana, and even caught himself wishing that the demon himself might appear.

But still the solemn rain poured down amid peals of thunder[Pg 39] without cessation, and nothing came. The fire hissed and sputtered, and finally roared up the wide chimney in triumph, the soldier dried his steaming garments, and at last the storm slowly abated, and passed off, settling into a gentle, drizzling rain, with a cold, gray sky, that looked as if it had set in for a gloomy day.

[Pg 39]

Then Adrian Schuyler began to cogitate within himself what was best to do. He knew that if he could not get to Derryfield, his labor was in vain, and he was equally aware that without a horse he could never expect to get there alive. Puzzling over his future course, he was startled by the footsteps of a horse outside, and clutching his carbine with his manacled hands, he started up and turned to the door. The chain that connected his irons just gave him sufficient play for his hands to fire a gun, and he expected an enemy.

What was his surprise at the group that met his view?

A horse without a rider, but saddled and bridled, was being led to the door of the hut by a huge black bear, the very creature that he had beheld gamboling with the girl the day before. The bear walked sedately forward, holding the bridle in his mouth, and the horse followed as if he was perfectly content with his clumsy conductor.

Full of amazement, Schuyler stepped out of the hut and looked around. Not a human creature was to be seen, either in the clearing or at the edge of the woods, but even as he stood there an arrow rose in the air from the 

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