o avenge the insults that had been offered. I looked
around the room, and all seemed astounded at the behaviour of the
Egyptian, save Voltaire, who was apologizing in profuse terms for his
friend. As I looked at his terrible eyes, my passion became greater, and
I felt I could not govern myself if I stayed in the room. I think some
one came up to me, and congratulated me on my coolness in dealing with
the man who had insulted me so; but I did not listen--I could not. An
overmastering impulse laid hold of me to follow the Egyptian, and I
dimly remember going into the hall and out into the silent night.

I knew the probability was that I should be followed, but I did not know
where to go, when I seemed to hear voices all around me uttering the
words "Drearwater Pond!" With that I started running with all my might,
knowing not where, yet dimly remembering that I had gone the road
before. Then all memory and consciousness ceased.

CHAPTER XI

DARK DREAMS AND NIGHT SHADOWS

I suppose I must have gone on blindly for some time, for when I again
became conscious I stood beside a river, while tall trees waved their
leafless branches overhead. Strange noises filled the air. Sometimes
wailing sounds were wafted to me, which presently changed into hisses,
until it seemed as if a thousand serpents were creeping all around me.
The waters of the river looked black, while above me were weird,
fantastic forms leaping in the stillness of the night. No words were
spoken, no language was uttered, save that of wailing and hissing, and
that somehow was indistinct, as if it existed in fancy and not in
reality. By and by, however, I heard a voice.

"Onward!" it said, and I became unconscious.

* * * * *

Again I realized my existence in a vague shadowy way. I stood beneath
the ruined walls of an Eastern temple. Huge columns arose in the air,
surmounted by colossal architraves, while the ponderous stones of which
the temple was built were covered with lichen. Large grey lizards
crawled in and out among the crevices of the rocks, and seemed to laugh
as they sported amidst what was once the expression of a great religious
system, but which was now terrible in its weird desolation. By and by
the great building seemed to assume its original shape and became
inhabited by white-robed priests, who ministered to the people who came
to worship. I watched eagerly, but they faded away, leaving nothing save
the