Now it was a square object moving sideways, endways, with neither head nor tail and scarcely visible feet; then an arched bulk rolling against the trunks of the trees and recoiling again, or an upright cylindrical mass, but always oscillating and unsteady, and striking the trees on either hand.

The frequent occurrence of the movement suggested the figures of some weird rhythmic dance to music heard by the shape alone.

Suddenly it either became motionless or faded away.
There was the frightened neighing of a horse, the sudden jingling of spurs, a shout and outcry, and the swift apparition of three dancing torches in one of the dark aisles; but so intense was the obscurity that they shed no light on surrounding objects, and seemed to advance of their own volition without human guidance, until they disappeared suddenly behind the interposing bulk of one of the largest trees.

Beyond its eighty feet of circumference the light could not reach, and the gloom remained inscrutable.

But the voices and jingling spurs were heard distinctly.
"Blast the mare! She's shied off that cursed trail again." "Ye ain't lost it again, hev ye ?" growled a second voice.
"That's jist what I hev.