e and went to my own door. Carse had locked
it from the outside!

I called to him for an explanation of this conduct, but he either
didn't hear me or chose to ignore my requests, for the house remained
grimly silent. Returning to bed, I managed somehow to doze off.

At two o'clock I was awakened by the sound of someone's walking in the
hallway. I sat bolt-upright in bed and heard the unmistakable approach
of footsteps coming down the corridor from Carse's bedroom. The tread
was stealthy and determined, and as it drew closer to my room I was
conscious of a cold mask of sweat clinging to my face, because the
footsteps did not sound like those of Jason Carse!

The feeling hit me and hit me again until I was left stunned with the
horror of it. It did not sound like Carse! But if it was not Carse,
_who was it?_

I wanted to call out his name, yet I felt, with some indefinable
sense, that the treader in the hall was unaware that I was in the
house, and for that reason it could not have been Carse. I was afraid
to make an outcry, and I sat stricken with dread as the footsteps went
past my door descending the stairs. A moment later there was a noise
of cutlery being moved in the kitchen, and the front door opened and
closed.

As it had come, that strange prescience vanished and I tried to reason
out what I had heard. Of course the man was Carse; who could it have
been save him, for were we not alone in the house? I sat for hours on
the bed working up a determination to shake the truth out of him when
he returned, but shortly after four o'clock my strength ran out of me
and I shook with fear as I heard that awful ghost-like tread ascending
the stairs. My heart beat wildly when the person reached my door and
twisted the knob to enter.

One thought flashed through my head: Thank God the door was locked!
The terrible feeling that it was not Carse came back upon me, and I
sat motionless as I listened to the sounds from outside. For a moment
there were no sounds from the intruder, but I did hear a faint
tap-tap-tap like that of a liquid falling to the wooden floor. In a
minute the knob was released and the footsteps continued down the hall
to Carse's room.

Any attempt to explain my thoughts as I sat smoking throughout the
night would only add to the confusion of these revelations. They were
not sane and rational thoughts, but rather strange suggestions and
premonitions. I thought myself to be in the presence of a tremendous