…way in this manner, when I suddenly saw, stretched across our track, a white coffin which rose up on end, and shook off its lid, and disclosed to my startled eyes a man, clad from head to foot in red tights. Stepping out from his prison, he placed his fingers in his mouth and whistled shrilly, whereupon the scene once more changed and I found myself back again in the forest, sitting at the foot of a huge, black tree, with the red man opposite me. “You are fond of music? He said,” Then listen!” and placing a flute to his lips, he blew. The most ghastly, the most hellish of noises rang through the forest, and, ere my shocked senses had time to recover I found myself once again in motion — this time on my own legs — with all the trees, headed by the red man, in…

…the earnestness with which he pleaded, flung him on the floor, and would have stabbed him, had not the room suddenly become pitch dark, and a loud and hollow voice uttered these words: “Fool! Thou hast murdered thine own soul! Know thy hell!” Something then struck me heavily on the forehead, I lost consciousness, and on recovering, found myself in a huge kitchen garden.A spade was in my hand, and I was digging for potatoes. The sun was so tremendously hot; my back and arms ached cruelly; and I was desperately thirsty. “Curse it!” I said to myself. “I have had enough of it! The old lady may go without her dinner for all I care! I am not going to wear myself to pieces and get sunstroke for her!’ Then I dashed my spade to the ground, and, looking round, espied a pool of clear water. Revelling in the…

…and pointed excitedly at my coat. Following his glance, the blood in my veins froze. My coat, which was buttoned, had swollen to an enormous size, and right across the back of it, was a huge, flabby-lipped mouth that was gulping down some nasty -looking, sticky mess as fast as it could. With an ejaculation of disgust I loosened my hold of it, and the next moment, caught up by a strong current of air, it was wafted away from me and borne at a great rate across the desert. Hanging on to it behind, I noticed (with the greatest sensation of relief) my tail! I now left the boy, and aiming for a clump of trees I saw in the distance, was rapidly advancing towards it, when a very tall and thin man, with a fiat rectangular face no thicker than a plank, rose out of a pit a…

…raging rapids; and then, tearing past my hut with the thunder of hell, hurled every tree in the forest to the ground. The effect of the sky was now apparent in everything; the whole landscape — mountains, river, and sands, and even the prostrate forest — shone with a violet glow. So far the rain had held off, but presently a huge hand was thrust out of the sky and shaken menacingly, whereupon a great fissure opened, and a whole sea of bubbling, violet water descended with such terrific force that the earth gave way beneath it; and amidst an inferno of sand, rafters, and water I was borne down, down, till all became suffused in the blackness of hell — and I lost consciousness. On recovery, I was standing knee -deep in an ocean of violet water that seethed and hissed on all sides of me. From time to…