from the spot I do not know, but when I did stir, it was to go forward,
and enter the uncanny hole.

"I had intended to light my candle when I got inside; but for some
reason I went stumbling along in the dark, following the wall till I got
to the steps where I had dropped the box. Here a light was necessary,
but my hand did not go to my pocket. I thought it better to climb the
steps first, and softly one foot found the tread and then another. I
had only three more to climb and then my right hand, now feeling its
way along the wall, would be free to strike a match. I climbed the three
steps and was steadying myself against the door for a final plunge,
when something happened--something so strange, so unexpected, and so
incredible that I wonder I did not shriek aloud in my terror. The door
was moving under my hand. It was slowly opening inward. I could feel the
chill made by the widening crack. Moment by moment this chill increased;
the gap was growing--a presence was there-a presence before which I sank
in a small heap upon the landing. Would it advance? Had it feet--hands?
Was it a presence which could be felt?

"Whatever it was, it made no attempt to pass, and presently I lifted
my head only to quake anew at the sound of a voice--a human voice--my
mother's voice--so near me that by putting out my arms I might have
touched her.

"She was speaking to my father. I knew from the tone. She was saying
words which, little understood as they were, made such a havoc in my
youthful mind that I have never forgotten the effect.

"'I have come!' she said. 'They think I have fled the house and are
looking far and wide for me. We shall not be disturbed. Who would think
looking of here for either you or me.'

"Here! The word sank like a plummet in my breast. I had known for some
few minutes that I was on the threshold of the forbidden room; but they
were in it. I can scarcely make you understand the tumult which this
awoke in my brain. Somehow, I had never thought that any such braving of
the house's law would be possible.

"I heard my father's answer, but it conveyed no meaning to me. I also
realized that he spoke from a distance,--that he was at one end of
the room while we were at the other. I was presently to have this idea
confirmed, for while I was striving with all my might and main to
subdue my very heart-throbs so that she would not hear me or suspect my
presence, the darkness--I should rather say the blackness of the