Atalapha, a Winged Brownie 
it had made a thing like a smooth Beaver dam and, 
Beaver-like, it had cut the trees for a wide space 
around. All this was comprehensible, but there 
was another strange affair. The two-legged thing 
had built a huge round nest of stones in the side of a 
hill and then when it was lined with tree trunks, it 
glowed by night with the red mystery, and strange 
fumes came pouring out, ascending to the sky in a 
space which changed with the wind. .There was a 
weird attraction about this high place of different 
air. Bats would flutter near the furnace as it 
glowed by night and sent an upward wind of heat 
and pungent smell. Insects came, it is true, at- 
tracted by the light, but surely the Bats did not 
come for that, as there were plenty of insects else- 
where. Perhaps it was to taste the tingling, danger- 
ous vapors that they came, just as some men find 
pleasure in teasing a coiled rattler or lingering 
barely out of reach of a chained and furious Bear. 
Some Bats came pursuing their lawful prey, and if 
they chanced to be flying low might enter the outer 
edge of the deadly gas before they knew, for it had 
no form or hue. 
Atalapha plunged right into the vapor of the 
lime kiln once. He went gasping, sputtering 
through, nearly falling, but was able to sustain his 
flight till his breath came back, and slowly he 
177 
a iititg 
a 
a, a 
bs 5 
= 
rae 
Z 
a: a 
ris 
- a; " f 
: 
