e nature of my
enemy, and knew not the mode or object of his attacks; for, somehow or
other, none of my questions had succeeded in drawing a definite answer
from the dame in the cottage. How then to defend myself I knew not; nor
even by what sign I might with certainty recognise the presence of my
foe; for as yet this vague though powerful fear was all the indication
of danger I had. To add to my distress, the clouds in the west had risen
nearly to the top of the skies, and they and the moon were travelling
slowly towards each other. Indeed, some of their advanced guard had
already met her, and she had begun to wade through a filmy vapour that
gradually deepened.

At length she was for a moment almost entirely obscured. When she shone
out again, with a brilliancy increased by the contrast, I saw plainly
on the path before me--from around which at this spot the trees receded,
leaving a small space of green sward--the shadow of a large hand, with
knotty joints and protuberances here and there. Especially I remarked,
even in the midst of my fear, the bulbous points of the fingers. I
looked hurriedly all around, but could see nothing from which such
a shadow should fall. Now, however, that I had a direction, however
undetermined, in which to project my apprehension, the very sense of
danger and need of action overcame that stifling which is the worst
property of fear. I reflected in a moment, that if this were indeed a
shadow, it was useless to look for the object that cast it in any other
direction than between the shadow and the moon. I looked, and peered,
and intensified my vision, all to no purpose. I could see nothing of
that kind, not even an ash-tree in the neighbourhood. Still the shadow
remained; not steady, but moving to and fro, and once I saw the fingers
close, and grind themselves close, like the claws of a wild animal, as
if in uncontrollable longing for some anticipated prey. There seemed
but one mode left of discovering the substance of this shadow. I went
forward boldly, though with an inward shudder which I would not heed, to
the spot where the shadow lay, threw myself on the ground, laid my head
within the form of the hand, and turned my eyes towards the moon Good
heavens! what did I see? I wonder that ever I arose, and that the very
shadow of the hand did not hold me where I lay until fear had frozen my
brain. I saw the strangest figure; vague, shadowy, almost transparent,
in the central parts, and gradu