He caught her by the fur coat , and begged and implored her not to go , for if she did she would certainly never return . She said nothing , but let her arms fall backwards , and suddenly bending herself forward , she slipped out of the coat , leaving it in her husband 's hands . He , poor man , seemed turned to stone as he gazed after her hurrying away from him , and calling at the top of her voice , as she ran : ' I am coming ! I am coming ! ' When she was quite out of sight her husband recovered his wits and went back into his house , murmuring : ` If she is so foolish as to wish to die , I ca n't help it . I warned and implored her to pay no heed to that voice , however loudly it might call . ' Well , days and weeks and months and years passed , and nothing happened to disturb the peace of the household . But one day the man was at the barber 's as usual , being shaved . The shop was full of people , and his chin had just been covered with a lather of soap , when , suddenly starting up from the chair , he called out in a loud voice : ' I wo n't come , do you hear ? I wo n't come ! ' The barber and the other people in the shop listened to him with amazement . But again looking towards the door , he exclaimed : ' I tell you , once and for all , I do not mean to come , so go away . ' And a few minutes later he called out again : ` Go away , I tell you , or it will be the worse for you . You may call as much as you like but you will never get me to come . ' And he got so angry that you might have thought that some one was actually standing at the door , tormenting him . At last he jumped up , and caught the razor out of the barber 's hand , exclaiming : ` Give me that razor , and I 'll teach him to let people alone for the future . ' And he rushed out of the house as if he were running after some one , whom no one else saw . The barber , determined not to lose his razor , pursued the man , and they both continued running at full speed till they had got well out of the town , when all of a sudden the man fell head foremost down a precipice , and never was seen again . So he too , like the others , had been forced against his will to follow the voice that called him . The barber , who went home whistling and congratulating himself on the escape he had made , described what had happened , and it was noised abroad in the country that the people who had gone away , and had never returned , had all fallen into that pit ; for till then they had never known what had happened to those who had heard the voice and obeyed its call .
But when crowds of people went out from the town XXXXX examine the ill-fated pit that had swallowed up such numbers , and yet never seemed to be full , they could discover nothing .
So against as at by from in on to with