what woke
me, but it was no gradual process, seeing that I jumped from deep sleep
to absolute alertness in a single instant. I had evidently slept for an
hour and more, for the night had cleared, stars crowded the sky, and a
pallid half-moon just sinking into the sea threw a spectral light
between the trees.

I went outside to sniff the air, and stood upright. A curious
impression that something was astir in the Camp came over me, and when I
glanced across at Sangree's tent, some twenty feet away, I saw that it
was moving. He too, then, was awake and restless, for I saw the canvas
sides bulge this way and that as he moved within.

The flap pushed forward. He was coming out, like myself, to sniff
the air; and I was not surprised, for its sweetness after the rain was
intoxicating. And he came on all fours, just as I had done. I saw a head
thrust round the edge of the tent.

And then I saw that it was not Sangree at all. It was an animal. And the
same instant I realised something else too--it was _the_ animal; and its
whole presentment for some unaccountable reason was unutterably malefic.

A cry I was quite unable to suppress escaped me, and the creature turned
on the instant and stared at me with baleful eyes. I could have dropped
on the spot, for the strength all ran out of my body with a rush.
Something about it touched in me the living terror that grips and
paralyses. If the mind requires but the tenth of a second to form an
impression, I must have stood there stockstill for several seconds while
I seized the ropes for support and stared. Many and vivid impressions
flashed through my mind, but not one of them resulted in action, because
I was in instant dread that the beast any moment would leap in my
direction and be upon me. Instead, however, after what seemed a vast
period, it slowly turned its eyes from my face, uttered a low whining
sound, and came out altogether into the open.

Then, for the first time, I saw it in its entirety and noted two things:
it was about the size of a large dog, but at the same time it was
utterly unlike any animal that I had ever seen. Also, that the quality
that had impressed me first as being malefic was really only its
singular and original strangeness. Foolish as it may sound, and
impossible as it is for me to adduce proof, I can only say that the
animal seemed to me then to be--not real.

But all this passed through my mind in a flash, almost subconsciously,
and before I had