266 A HIDEOUS PAIR, 



continued to approach till they seemed but a few paces distant, 

 though the walkers were still concealed in darkness. We strove 

 to speak again, but our tongue refused its office. 



At this moment the scene was suddenly illumined by a blaze 

 of light proceeding from the enormous lanthorn of a giant 

 glow-worm (one of the last survivors of its harmless race) 

 suddenly protruded from a heap of half-devoured leaves on a 

 bank by the way-side. Then we beheld (oh ! sight of terror 

 and sickening disappointment ! ) instead of the fellow-men we 

 had fondly hoped to encounter, two hideous shapes, human 

 in naught but bulk so liideous that our blood ran cold at 

 their very aspect. On a level with our head (on either side 

 one) were a pair of long triangular bony faces, motionless as 

 visages of the dead, save for the fierce twinkle of their pro- 

 minent green eyes, each studded by a blood-red pupil. Fitting 

 pedestals for capitals so frightful were the figures of these 

 monstrous creatures their bodies gaunt and lanky, their limbs 

 angular and rigid, resembling rather the skeleton branches of 

 a blasted tree than any animal form of life and motion. Yet 

 of motion, fierce and threatening, there was no lack in the long 

 spectral arms waved above their heads and brandishing in 

 all directions as many tremendous weapons, knife-like and 

 saw-like, winch, being part and parcel of themselves, could 

 never be wrested from their grasp. The horrid pair seemed 

 about to rush upon us, when they both turned suddenly towards 

 the bank stopped bent under them their hinder limbs, and 



