he countenance of Emanuel Sard. It warmed his parrot-nose
agreeably; it cheered and enlivened him.

Not for him a night of terrors in that horrible forest which he could
see through the pantry window.

A sense of security and of well-being pervaded Sard to his muddy shoes.
He even curled his fat toes in them with animal contentment.

A little snack before cooking a heavily satisfactory dinner? Certainly.

So he tucked a couple of bottles of beer under one arm, a loaf of bread
and a chunk of cheese under the other, and waddled out to the veranda
door.

At that instant the very heavens echoed with that awful tumult which had
first paralysed, then crazed him in the woods.

Bottles, bread, cheese fell from his grasp and his knees nearly
collapsed under him. In the bushes on the lake shore he saw animals
leaping and racing, but, in his terror, he did not recognise them for
dogs.

Then, suddenly, he saw a man, close to the house, running: and another
man not far behind. _That_ he understood, and it electrified him into
action.

It was too late to escape from the house now. He understood that
instantly.

He ran back through the dance-hall and dining-room to the pantry; but he
dared not let these intruders hear the noise of hammering.

In an agony of indecision he stood trembling, listening to the infernal
racket of the dogs, and waiting for the first footstep within the house.

No step came. But, chancing to look over his shoulder, he saw a man
peering through the pantry window at him.

Ungovernable terror seized Sard. Scarcely aware what he was about, he
seized the edges of the big drain-pipe and crowded his obese body into
it head first. He was so far and heavy that he filled the tile. To
start himself down he pulled with both hands and kicked himself forward,
tortoise-like, down the slanting tunnel, sticking now and then, dragging
himself on and downward.

Now he began to gain momentum; he felt himself sliding, not fast but
steadily.

There came a hitch somewhere; his heavy body stuck on the steep incline.

Then, as he lifted his bewildered head and stove to peer into the
blackness in front, he saw four balls of green fire close to him in the
darkness.

He began to slide at the same instant, and flung out both hands to check
himself. But his palms slid in the slime and his body slid after.

He shrieked once as his face struck a furry obstruction where four balls
of green fire flamed horribly