oud which was passing over it. Then, even as I looked upward,
glancing as it might be over my left shoulder, I saw, with a sudden
horror, that something had come anigh me, and upon the instant, I caught
the reek of the thing, and leapt fearfully to one side, turning as I
sprang. Thus was I saved in the very moment of my destruction; for the
creature's tentacles smeared the back of my neck as I leapt, and then I
had smitten, once and again, and conquered.

Immediately after this, I discovered something to be crossing the dark
space that lay between the dull mound of the nearest fire, and that which
lay further along the hill-top, and so, wasting no moment of time, I ran
towards the thing, and cut it twice across the head before ever it could
get upon its hind parts, in which position I had learned greatly to dread
them. Yet, no sooner had I slain this one, than there came a rush of
maybe a dozen upon me; these having climbed silently over the cliff edge
in the meanwhile. At this, I dodged, and ran madly towards the glowing
mound of the nearest fire, the brutes following me almost so quick as I
could run; but I came to the fire the first, and then, a sudden thought
coming to me, I thrust the point of my cut-and-thrust among the embers
and switched a great shower of them at the creatures, and at that I had a
momentary clear vision of many white, hideous faces stretched out towards
me, and brown, champing mandibles which had the upper beak shutting into
the lower; and the clumped, wriggling tentacles were all a-flutter. Then
the gloom came again; but immediately, I switched another and yet another
shower of the burning embers towards them, and so, directly, I saw them
give back, and then they were gone. At this, all about the edges of the
hilltop, I saw the fires being scattered in like manner; for others had
adopted this device to help them in their sore straits.

For a little after this, I had a short breathing space, the brutes
seeming to have taken fright; yet I was full of trembling, and I glanced
hither and thither, not knowing when some one or more of them would come
upon me. And ever I glanced towards the moon, and prayed the Almighty
that the clouds would pass quickly, else should we be all dead men; and
then, as I prayed, there rose a sudden very terrible scream from one of
the men, and in the same moment there came something over the edge of the
cliff fronting me; but I cleft it or ever it could rise higher, and i