more abundant. Then there was a desolate space covered with
a white sand, and then another expanse of tangled bushes.
I did not remember crossing the sand-opening before.
I began to be tormented by a faint rustling upon my right hand.
I thought at first it was fancy, for whenever I stopped there
was silence, save for the evening breeze in the tree-tops.
Then when I turned to hurry on again there was an echo to
my footsteps.

I turned away from the thickets, keeping to the more open ground,
and endeavouring by sudden turns now and then to surprise something
in the act of creeping upon me. I saw nothing, and nevertheless
my sense of another presence grew steadily. I increased my pace,
and after some time came to a slight ridge, crossed it, and turned sharply,
regarding it steadfastly from the further side. It came out black
and clear-cut against the darkling sky; and presently a shapeless
lump heaved up momentarily against the sky-line and vanished again.
I felt assured now that my tawny-faced antagonist was stalking me
once more; and coupled with that was another unpleasant realisation,
that I had lost my way.

For a time I hurried on hopelessly perplexed, and pursued by that
stealthy approach. Whatever it was, the Thing either lacked the courage
to attack me, or it was waiting to take me at some disadvantage.
I kept studiously to the open. At times I would turn and listen;
and presently I had half persuaded myself that my pursuer had abandoned
the chase, or was a mere creation of my disordered imagination.
Then I heard the sound of the sea. I quickened my footsteps
almost into a run, and immediately there was a stumble in
my rear.

I turned suddenly, and stared at the uncertain trees behind me.
One black shadow seemed to leap into another. I listened,
rigid, and heard nothing but the creep of the blood in my ears.
I thought that my nerves were unstrung, and that my imagination
was tricking me, and turned resolutely towards the sound of the
sea again.

In a minute or so the trees grew thinner, and I emerged upon
a bare, low headland running out into the sombre water.
The night was calm and clear, and the reflection of the growing
multitude of the stars shivered in the tranquil heaving of the sea.
Some way out, the wash upon an irregular band of reef shone
with a pallid light of its own. Westward I saw the zodiacal
light mingling with the yellow brilliance of the evening star.
The coast fell away from me