WYLDER'S HAJVO.
353
and a wicked seraph received him, and blessed him, till his
hair stood up. Let me whisper you."
"No, not just at this moment, please," said Lake,
drawing away, disgusted, from the maniacal leer and tit-
ter of the gigantic old man.
"Aye, aye — another time — some night there's au-
rora borealis in the sky. You know this goes under
ground all the way to Vallambrosa?"
"Thank you; I was not aware; that's very conve-
nient. Had you not better go down to speak to your friend
in the water?"
"Young man, I bless you for remembering," said Un-
cle Lome, solemnly. Don't move, till I go down; he's
as easily frightened as a fish."
Uncle Lome crept down the bank, tacking, and dodging,
and all the time laughing softly to himself; and some-
times winking with a horrid, wily grimace at Stanley, who
fervently wished him at the bottom of the tarn.
"I say," said Stanley, addressing the keeper, whom by
a beck he had brought to his side, "you don't allow him,
surely, to go alone now?"
"No, sir — since your order, sir," said the stern, re-
served official.
"Nor to come into any place but this — the park, I
mean?"
"No, sir."
"And do you mind, try and get him home always be-
fore nightfall. It is easy to frighten him. Find out what
frightens him, and do it or say it. It is dangerous, don't
you see? and he might break his d—d neck any time
among those rocks and gullies, or get away altogether
from you in the dark."
So the keeper, at the water's brink, joined Uncle
Lome, who was talking, after his fashion, into the dark