s drawn the close screen of night, till the
clearing in front was blotted out, and only the tree-tops, black as
rugged hills one behind the other, stood out against the heavy purple
of the circlet of sky above. As the evening deepened the quaintest
noises began on every hand--noises so strange and bewildering that as I
cowered down with my teeth chattering, and stared hard into the
impenetrable, they could be likened to nothing but the crying of all
the souls of dead things since the beginning. Never was there such an
infernal chorus as that which played up the Martian stars. Down there
in front, where hummock grass was growing, some beast squeaked
continuously, till I shouted at him, then he stopped a minute, and
began again in entirely another note. Away on the hills two rival
monsters were calling to each other in tones so hollow they seemed as I
listened to penetrate through me, and echo out of my heart again. Far
overhead, gigantic bats were flitting, the shadow of their wings
dimming a dozen universes at once, and crying to each other in shrill
tones that rent the air like tearing silk.

As I listened to those vampires discussing their infernal loves under
the stars, from a branch right overhead broke such a deathly howl from
the throat of a wandering forest cat that everything else was hushed
for a moment. All about a myriad insects were making night giddy with
their ghostly fires, while underground and from the labyrinths of
matted roots came quaint sounds of rustling snakes and forest pigs, and
all the lesser things that dig and scratch and growl.

Yet I was desperately sleepy, my sword hung heavy as lead at my side,
my eyelids drooped, and so at last I dozed uneasily for an hour or two.
Then, all on a sudden, I came wide awake with a shock. The night was
quieter now; away in the forest depth strange noises still arose, but
close at hand was a strange hush, like the hush of expectation, and,
listening wonderingly, I was aware of slow, heavy footsteps coming up
from the river, now two or three steps together, then a pause, then
another step or two, and as I bent towards the approaching thing,
staring into the darkness, my strained senses were conscious of another
approach, as like as could be, coming from behind me. On they came,
making the very ground quake with their weight, till I judged that both
were about on the edge of the clearing, two vast rat-like shadows, but
as big as elephants, and bringing