TWILIGHT LAND

the end of the year. That day and night the merry-
making was merrier and wilder and madder than it had
ever been before, but the great clock in the tower went on
-—tick, tock! tick, tock!—and by-and-by it came mid-
night.. Then, as it always happened before, the lights
went out, and all was as black as ink. But this time
there was no wailing and crying out, but everything as
silent as death. The door opened slowly, and’in came,
not six black men as before, but nine men as silent as
death, dressed all in flaming red, and the torches they
carried burned as red as blood. They took King Selim
by the arms, just as the six men had done, and marched
him through the same entries and passage-ways, and so
came at last to the same vaulted room. There stood the
statue, but now it was turned to flesh and blood, and
the eyes were open and looking straight at Selim the
Baker.

“Art thou Selim?” said she; and she pointed her
finger straight at him.

“Yes, I am Selim,” said he.

“And dost thou wear the gold ring with the red
stone ?” said she. :

“Yes,” said he, ‘I have it on my finger.”

“ And dost thou wear the iron ring ? ”

“No,” said he, “I gave that to Selim the Fisherman.”

The words had hardly left his lips when the statue
gave a great cry and clapped her hands together. In an
instant an echoing cry sounded all over the town—a
shriek fit to split the ears.

The next moment there came another sound—a sound
like thunder—above and below and everywhere. The
earth began to shake and to rock, and the houses began

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