feet made on
the boards! How the blood sang and buzzed in my head!

I was inside. The darkness closed over me, hiding even the windows. I
groped my way round the walls in a thorough search; but in order to
prevent all possibility of the other's escape, I first of all _closed
the door_.

There we were, we two, shut in together between four walls, within a few
feet of one another. But with what, with whom, was I thus momentarily
imprisoned? A new light flashed suddenly over the affair with a swift,
illuminating brilliance--and I knew I was a fool, an utter fool! I was
wide awake at last, and the horror was evaporating. My cursed nerves
again; a dream, a nightmare, and the old result--walking in my sleep.
The figure was a dream-figure. Many a time before had the actors in my
dreams stood before me for some moments after I was awake.... There was
a chance match in my pajamas' pocket, and I struck it on the wall. The
room was utterly empty. It held not even a shadow. I went quickly down
to bed, cursing my wretched nerves and my foolish, vivid dreams. But as
soon as ever I was asleep again, the same uncouth figure of a man crept
back to my bedside, and bending over me with his immense head close to
my ear whispered repeatedly in my dreams, "I want your body; I want its
covering. I'm waiting for it, and listening always." Words scarcely less
foolish than the dream.

But I wonder what that queer odour was up in the square room. I noticed
it again, and stronger than ever before and it seemed to be also in my
bedroom when I woke this morning.

* * * * *

Nov. 29.--Slowly, as moonbeams rise over a misty sea in June, the
thought is entering my mind that my nerves and somnambulistic dreams do
not adequately account for the influence this house exercises upon me.
It holds me as with a fine, invisible net. I cannot escape if I would.
It draws me, and it means to keep me.

* * * * *

Nov. 30.--The post this morning brought me a letter from Aden, forwarded
from my old rooms in Earl's Court. It was from Chapter, my former
Trinity chum, who is on his way home from the East, and asks for my
address. I sent it to him at the hotel he mentioned, "to await arrival."

As I have already said, my windows command a view of the alley, and I
can see an arrival without difficulty. This morning, while I was busy
writing, the sound of footsteps coming up the alley filled me with a