So Robert Wodrow flattered himself that Ellinor, perhaps in a dream of her own, had somehow come to him in the spirit, a wild and mystic idea; but, as he examined his arms and ammunition before again resuming his journey, he found that there had been perilously near him in the night something as bad, if not worse, than the Ghoule Biaban! Amid the sandy mud of a runnel that ran not far from the ruined walls there were distinctly traceable the prints of tigers' feet, quite fresh, like the paw-marks of a gigantic cat; so on this night, when he thought that by the influence of superstition he was unusually safe, he had been in more than usual peril! A few miles more would bring him to Gundamuck, a walled village, twenty-eight miles west of Jellalabad, surrounded by luxuriant wheat-fields and tall groves of sombre cypresses--the place where Yakoub Khan and the ill-fated Cavagnari had signed that treaty of peace which the former had so basely violated; but Gundamuck was a place to be avoided by the fugitive, who kept among the mountains above it, thus having to ford more than one tributary of the Surkh-ab river, and while sighing to think he had still nearly seventy miles to travel on foot before he would hear the sound of a British bugle, he struck manfully into paths which presented themselves here and there, but seemed to be only marked by the tread of beasts of prey. Among rocky mountains, divested of all verdure and green clothing, his way lay now for miles, and, if the utter loneliness of the scenes ensured safety, it was at times not the less impressive and appalling to the solitary man, and made him think, 'The silent gloom around hath power To banish aught of gladness; The good with awful dreams to thrill, The guilty--drive to madness!' CHAPTER VIII. THE GHILZIE. In avoiding the village of Gundamuck by making a detour to the right, Robert Wodrow came upon a handsome Moslem edgah built in a solitary place. The mausoleum--for such it was, erected over the remains of a santon or holy man--was built of white marble, with a dome and finely carved horseshoe-shaped entrance door. The oleander and rose shed perfume around it, with many a flower grown wild, as the garden which once environed it, either by dissensions incident to Afghanistan or the departure of a tribe, was completely neglected now. The custard apple, the pomegranate, and the citron hung their golden but untasted fruit around it, and the snow-white blossoms of the sweet jasmine hung in garlands from tree to tree. The tomb looked solemn and picturesque, and Robert Wodrow was in the act of pausing in his lonely way to admire it, when, somewhat to his consternation, there stalked forth from the interior a tall and grim-looking Afghan warrior, completely armed. His rosary of ninety-nine beads--each representing an attribute of the Diety--dangled at his left wrist; thus he had evidently been saying his prayers at the shrine of the santon.