the hole. She returned, announcing that one could see clearly something
in the well, something altogether unusual. But this no doubt was bundles
of straw, which a neighbor had thrown in out of spite.

"I wished to look down the well also, hoping I might be able to clear up
the mystery, and I perched myself close to the brink. I perceived
indistinctly a white object. What could it be? I then conceived the idea
of lowering a lantern at the end of a cord. When I did so the yellow
flame danced on the layers of stone and gradually became clearer. All
four of us were leaning over the opening, Sapeur and Celeste having now
joined us. The lantern rested on a black-and-white indistinct mass,
singular, incomprehensible. Sapeur exclaimed:

"'It is a horse. I see the hoofs. It must have got out of the meadow
during the night and fallen in headlong.'

"But suddenly a cold shiver froze me to the marrow. I first recognized a
foot, then a leg sticking up; the whole body and the other leg were
completely under water.

"I stammered out in a loud voice, trembling so violently that the lantern
danced hither and thither over the slipper:

"'It is a woman! Who-who-can it be? It is Miss Harriet!'

"Sapeur alone did not manifest horror. He had witnessed many such scenes
in Africa.

"Mother Lecacheur and Celeste began to utter piercing screams and ran
away.