The Greylock | Page 9

meeting, she lost
sight of George for the first time for many weeks.
The naughty boy was delighted. He slipped out of the castle, whence
his older brother would not move, on account of the bad weather, went
down to the shore of the lake, and finding that it was unusually rough,
he, together with the son of the head-gondolier, sprang into a small boat,
and drove it with powerful strokes out among the waves. The wind
lifted the brown curls of the boy, and whenever a large wave bore the
skiff aloft on its crest, he shouted with joy. Hitherto he had only been
allowed to go on the lake in a well manned, safe boat, and then the
sailors were under orders to keep to the southern half of the lake.
Consequently an excursion on the water had seemed but a mild
amusement; but to be his own master, and to fight thus untrammelled

against the winds and waves was pleasure such as he had never before
experienced.
He had never yet visited the northern part of the lake, there where it
was so dark, and mysterious, and where--as old Nonna used to
relate--evil spirits dwelt, and a giant covered with pumice-stone was
compelled by a curse to live. Perhaps, if he could only get to the other
shore, he might see a ghost! That was a tempting prospect! So he
turned the bow of the boat towards the north, and bidding his
companion to row hard, did the same himself.
As they got further north, the waves increased in size, a storm arose and
blew fiercely in their faces; but the rougher the lake became, the gayer
and more boisterous grew George's mood.
His companion began to be afraid, and begged that they might return,
but George, though it was not his custom, made his princely authority
felt, and sternly commanded the boy to do as he was bid.
All at once it became dark around them, and it seemed as if a powerful
sea-horse must have got under the skiff and lifted it with his back, for
George was hurled into the air. Then he felt himself caught by a
rushing whirlpool which sucked him in its circles to the bottom. He lost
breath and consciousness. When he came to himself again, he found
himself in a closed cave, amidst strange forms of grey-brown, dripping
stalactites. Above the arches of the roof he heard a loud, grunting laugh,
and a voice, that sounded like the hoarse howl of a dog, cried several
times: "Here we have the Wendelin brood! At last I have the
Greylock!"
Then George remembered all that he had overheard Pepe and Nonna
relate, and all that he had coaxed out of them by his questions. He had
fallen into the hands of the evil spirit, Misdral, and now the real
misfortune, which had threatened him ever since his birth, was to begin.
He was freezing cold, and very hungry, and as he thought of the
beautiful gardens at home, of the well-spread table in his father's castle,
at which he used to sit so comfortably in his high-backed chair, and of
the well-fed lackeys, he felt quite faint.
He also realized what terrible anxiety his absence would cause his
mother. He could see her running about, weeping, with her hair in
disorder, seeking him every where.
When he was smaller she had often taken him into her bed and played

"Little Red Riding Hood" with him, and he said to himself that for that
and many succeeding nights she would find no rest on her silken
cushions, but would wet them with her tears. These recollections
brought him to the verge of weeping, but the next instant he stamped
his foot angrily, in rage against his weakness.
He was only thirteen years old, but he was a true Greylock, and fear
and cowardice were as unknown to him as to his ancestor, Wendelin I.
So when he heard the voice of the wicked Misdral again, and listened
to the curses which it heaped upon his family, George's anger grew so
hot that he picked up a stone, as the first Wendelin had done five
hundred years before, to hurl it in the monster's wrinkled face. But
Misdral did not show himself, and George had to give up the
expectation of seeing him, for he gathered from the conversation
between the two spirits that, owing to an oath which he had given to the
fairy, Misdral dared not lay hands on a Wendelin, and that, therefore,
he had planned to starve him (George) to death. This prospect seemed
all the more dreadful to the boy because of his hunger at that moment.
The cave was lighted by a hole in the roof of rocks, and