"Nothing but the stovepipe, six inches in diameter. A man
couldn't crawl out through that, I'm sure. Mr. King, we've come upon a
real mystery. The eye without a visible body."
"I'm sure I saw it," reiterated Truxton. The Prince's aunt was actually
laughing at him. But so was the Witch, for that matter. He didn't mind
the Witch.
Suddenly the old woman stepped into the middle of the room and began to
wave her hands in a mysterious manner over an empty pot that stood on
the floor in front of the stove. The others drew back, watching her with
the greatest curiosity.
A droning song oozed from the thin lips; the gesticulations grew in
weirdness and fervor. Then, before their startled eyes, a thin film of
smoke began to rise from the empty pot. It grew in volume until the room
was quite dense with it. Even more quickly than it began, it
disappeared, drawn apparently by some supernatural agency into the draft
of the stove and out through the rickety chimney pipe. Even Dangloss
blinked his eyes, and not because they were filled with smoke.
A deafening crash, as of many guns, came to their ears from the outside.
With one accord the entire party rushed to the outer door, a wild laugh
from the hag pursuing them.
"There!" she screamed. "There goes all there was of him! And so shall
we all go some day.
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