had some connection however frail with the world without if we could only use it to some purpose and time if we had made this discovery at first i should have felt that our was secure but my companions had grown already very weak and a few hours more must needs decide their and if thej died it seemed impossible to me that i should survive them there was not a moment therefore to be lost i bade them change their place to one almost immediately beneath the and then we all took turns to pull gently but firmly at the string exactly as though we were ringing a bell the effect of this would be of course to shake the tree which all in blossom as it was and standing quite alone was a most noticeable object to any person upon the fell my hope was that the same calm weather might still hold which had prevailed on that fatal monday that seemed now long ago so that the swaying of the tree not be attributed to natural causes and even if it should be stormy there was still a chance of the groom sending the messenger for the as his master had directed him to do in my hearing as it happened this latter circumstance did not occur on account of all hands at the tower being employed in looking for me in the wrong direction but i had cause to bless that which so often the execution of orders given in the country since if the boy had brought that home an the y we three of the giant would never have him alive v ih the ot � a chanced to cross the fell and was attracted by our signal never shall i forget the joy of that moment when we heard him hail us � though we could not catch his words � or the eager cry for help that seemed to well up from our very heart in response i instantly issued our last of and was about to divide the brandy between my two when whispered that i should give it all to and it was fortunate that i did so for else i scarcely think the poor girl could have survived the suspense that followed from the accidental absence of the guide who had the charge of the the key could not be found and the iron gates had to be forced ere we could be released it was past midnight before we heard the shouts of our and beheld the flashes of their the hateful gloom the experience of those three days lodging in the heart of was a profoundly serious one but it has borne very pleasant fruit besides tower there are now two other roof trees near to where i always find a welcome � the cottages of jack and who married their respective within a few months of their rescue i was present at the double wedding and had the duty of in conferred upon me the year has got the most sensible husband and the but the latter has got sense enough for both when romantic people ask me whether i have ever met with a heroine in real life i tell them yes for had not only the heroism to look death in the face but the greater courage to contemplate the ct ik the of � hill tliat her handsome lover would assuredly console himself for her loss by marrying somebody else lor and so i should ha done said with a grin he is himself not a romantic person when i revealed to him what had said a man s heart ain t stone you know like the heart of a hill a bad night i have noticed in fiction that when any quite in occurrence is about to the author his statement with the remark that what is about to follow is literally true he his word as it e while admitting that the affair has an ugly look that his readers shall not be but after all what is his word what is any man s word when weighed in the balance with one s own sense of and how much less weight has the word of an author � the mere shadow of a shade we believe him or not just as we do other folk for that matter as we feel inclined hence it is therefore that i from to the following any such heading as strange but true or stranger than fiction although it is very strange and although it happened to myself again before i begin let me to the conventional use of sleep in fiction to account for a gentleman or lady their personal experiences among ghosts and other unusual company always upon the of the impressions they describe and then the they are s a bad with a who eats human flesh when in endeavouring to his from some sensitive portion of their persons with the they awake and lo twas all a dream to offer an explanation of this sort for any phenomenon is in my opinion to insult the intelligent reader no the thing i have got to tell happened to me five years ago but may possibly happen to you tomorrow and is just as real and an occurrence as the i had to the by the by on the very day in question but i was not do not entertain that idea for a single moment i was as sober as any student at his examination before his s but i had to dine in town and accompany some country cousins with their children to a exhibition � a proceeding which to an old bachelor like myself is not of an nature � and i was dog tired and utterly knocked up if you know what it is to be almost too fatigued to and to fall asleep as you down on 