that it had become quite cold and somewhat dry.
About 3 o'clock I decided to return to the cabin. I had all the fish we could use, and while they were still biting, it seemed a shame to take more from the water than would supply our wants. Drawing near the clearing, I heard loud curses, then shouts, vengeful and gleeful in turn. As I hurried through the trees and around a small hill, a strange sight met my eyes. Judson McSweet was hopping about some distance in front of the cave and hurling stones into the mouth of it. "Ah you devil," he shouted, "how was that? So, you creeping monster! Right through you! There, you fiend! And there, and there, and there!"
I hurried toward him, my eyes fixed intently on the entrance to the cave. I could see nothing but a gray billowing mist which filled the entire opening.
As his missiles disappeared into this mass, a puff of vapor would spurt forth much in the manner of smoke on the discharge of a gun. These spurts of vapor were accompanied by a horrible odor; a sickening, dead, carrion odor. As I drew nearer, I could feel the same sense of chilly fear steal over me which I had noticed in the morning. The cloud had by now receded into the depths of the cave and by the time I reached McSweet it had entirely disappeared. He stood panting from his exertions, shaking his fist, growling inaudibly.
"What on earth is the matter, Mac?" I exclaimed. "Have you gone crazy?"
"Did you see it?" he cried. "Oh, the inhuman devouring thing! Waiting to draw me into its cold clammy maw. And listen to it! It is angry and seems to be telling me that some day it will not fail." From the interior of the cavern came a wailing and roaring sound as of a high wind sweeping over a neglected graveyard.
"I saw nothing," I replied, "but a cloud of mist. Collect yourself. Why were you throwing stones and acting in such a wild manner?"
"That was it, Hatton, what you call mist. But it is not that. No, no. It is a deadly agency of some sort which destroys and leaves no trace."
"Why do you say that? It is true the stuff smelled rather bad, but so far as I could observe it did not seem capable of much harm. It is probably a mist which rises periodically from some subterranean river."
"Mist nothing! No, there is intelligence and power there. During the first months of my stay here my only companions were a cat and dog. Poor old Tom, it got him. During the hot weather he was in the habit of sleeping just at the mouth of the cave where it was cool. One day I was sitting in the door of my cabin when I suddenly heard a number of terrified squalls from the cave. Looking up I beheld poor Tom, his head and forefeet projecting from the vaporous mass. He seemed to be struggling desperately to get out, but was gradually sucked in; his cries ceased and the cloud retreated into the cavern. I hastened to the cave but he was gone. Since then I have seen several small animals disappear in a like manner. First a rabbit, then a fox and finally a wolf. They had apparently gone to the spring for water."
"Remarkable!" I exclaimed. "Can it be that the cloud we saw is some sort of poisonous vapor which rises at intervals from the depths of the earth and overcomes whatever living thing it envelops?"
"It can't be that, no. A gas of that nature would cause death but it certainly would not be able to remove the body of the victim. No, this is an intelligent agency of some sort, devilish and deadly. A dog would not fear gas, would it? Well, I had a dog, and after the disappearance of the cat I noticed what I had failed to ob-
