The worm slowly pulled its articulate body up to the black wall, and touched and tested it. Johannes saw that it was of wood. Here and there it was decayed into brownish powder. In one of these places the worm bored through, and with three push-and-pulls the long, supple body slipped within. "Now you!" said Pluizer, and he shoved Johannes into the little round opening. For an instant, the latter thought he should be stifled in the soft, moist mold; then he felt his head free, and with some trouble he worked his way completely through. A large space appeared to lie beyond. The floor was hard and damp--the air thick, and intolerably close. Johannes dared scarcely to breathe, and waited in mute terror. He heard Pluizer's voice. It had a hollow ring, as if in a great cellar. "Here, Johannes, follow me." He felt the ground rise up before him to a mountain. With the aid of Pluizer's hand he climbed this, in deepest darkness. He seemed to be walking over a garment that gave way under his tread. He stumbled over hollows and hillocks, following Pluizer, who led him to a level spot where he clung in place by some long stems that bent in his hands like reeds. "Here is a good place to stop. A light!" cried Pluizer. The dim light showed in the distance, rising and falling with its bearer. The nearer it came and the more its faint glow filled the space, the more terrible was Johannes' distress. The mountain he had traveled over was long and white. The reeds to which he was clinging were brown, and fell below in lustrous rings and waves. He recognized the straight form of a human being; and the cold level on which he stood was the forehead. Before him, like two deep dark caverns, lay the insunken eyes, and the blue light shone over the thin nose, and the ashen lips opened in a rigid, dismal death-grin. Pluizer gave a shrill laugh, that was immediately stifled by the damp, wooden walls. "Is not this a surprise, Johannes?" The long worm came creeping on between the folds of the shroud; it pushed itself cautiously up over the chin, and slipped through the rigid lips into the black mouth-hole. "This was the beauty of the ball--the one you thought more lovely than an elf. Then, sweet perfume streamed from her clothes and hair; then her eyes sparkled, and her lips laughed. Look _now_ at her!" With all his terror, there was doubt in Johannes' eyes. So soon? Just now so glorious--and already...? "Do you not believe me?" sneered Pluizer. "A half-century lies between then and now. There is neither hour nor time. What once was shall always be, and what is to be has already been. You cannot conceive of it, but you must believe it. Here all is truth--all that I show you is true--true! Windekind could not say that."