He crept in stealthily. Upon the floor lay the skins of beasts. He coiled his weary body upon them and slept. When he awoke he found that he was not alone.
Crouched upon some other skins in a dusky corner lay a figure, the outlines of which he could at first barely distinguish in the scant light that came from the old lamp hanging from the roof of the squalid cave. But at last the figure moved; and Antar trembled, for it rose and came towards him, and he then saw plainly that it was the form of a wizzened and hideous hag.
"So," she exclaimed, smiling and showing her toothless gums, "you have come. I have long been waiting for you."
"You?" cried Antar, recoiling. "You?"
"Yes; we will live and love together now for ever. Do you not know me? Do you not recognise me? And yet you know me well. Come," and she strove to embrace him with her thin, bony arms.
"Never!" exclamed Antar. "I will leave you."
