Page 82 - Adventures in shadow-land

which they had passed, had tried to get possession
of Aster, Eva began to fear that by creeping into

the hole he had put himself in their power, and
that she would never be able to find, him again.
She went on, however, looking carefully into

every tiny cavity, but always with the same result.
No Aster was to be seen: only huge spiders and

squatting frogs stared at her from every cranny.
And, as she climbed up higher and higher, she

found that the rocky wall was like a giant stair­
case ; and when she looked back, noticing that

the stones she displaced, as she climbed up, only
rolled a short time and then made no noise as

they fell, and thinking that after her search was
over she would return to the little spring and

wait there patiently until the moon rose again,
when, as she hoped, Aster, if she did not find him

now, would wake up and come back to her, she
saw that she could never return to the spring,

For the steps by which she had come were gone,
melting one by one into the face oT the rock,

changing into a steep precipice behind her; and
at its foot were curling mists and v a p o rs, among

which she sa'vy dimly the hateful, mocking faces