‘I am lost; I am in the power of Satan,’ flashed through me like lightning. Till that instant the idea of a temptation of the evil one, of the possibility of perdition, had never entered my head. We still whirled on, and seemed to be mounting higher and higher.

‘Where will you take me?’ I moaned at last.

‘Where you like,’ my companion answered. She clung close to me; her face was almost resting upon my face. But I was scarcely conscious of her touch.

‘Let me sink down to the earth, I am giddy at this height.’

‘Very well; only shut your eyes and hold your breath.’

I obeyed, and at once felt that I was falling like a stone flung from the hand ... the air whistled in my ears. When I could think again, we were floating smoothly once more just above the earth, so that we caught our feet in the tops of the tall grass.

‘Put me on my feet,’ I began. ‘What pleasure is there in flying? I’m not a bird.’

‘I thought you would like it. We have no other pastime.’

‘You? Then what are you?’

There was no answer.