w, presently, at the eighteenth hour of that day's travel, I ceased
from my journeying, that I might eat and drink; and I did sit a little
while, and looked back upon the strange and monstrous thing which I had
come beyond. And the great humped back and vast shoulders of the
Watching-Thing rose up into the night, black and cumbrous against the
red shine of the Pit. And thus, as you shall think, had that Brute
looked always unto the Mighty Pyramid, through Eternity, and did cease
not from watching, and was steadfast and silent and alone; and none did
understand.

And after I had eat, and drunk some of the water, I went onward for a
full matter of six hours more; being minded to have no sleep until I had
put a great way between me and the Watcher. And in this part of my
journey did I come to The Place Where The Silent Ones Kill, as it was
named in the Maps. And I observed a very wondrous caution, and went away
from it a little, unto the North, where I did see at a distance the
shinings of fire-holes; the which did promise me warmth through my
slumber.

And here you must know that the Place Where The Silent Ones Kill was an
utter bare place, where all did seem of rock, and no bush did seem to
grow thereon; so that a man might not come to any hiding; though, in
truth, there might be some hole here or there; yet was none shown in any
map within the Pyramid; neither did there seem to be any such to me, as
I did creep there among the moss-bushes to the Northward of the Place,
and look constant and fearful towards it; so that I should see quickly
whether any Silent One did move across all the grey quiet of that rocky
plain.

And concerning this same Place Where The Silent Ones Kill, it were well
to make an explanation how that there was always a little and
far-spreaded light over all that lonesomeness; and the light was
something grey-seeming; as it were that a lichen might grow upon the
rocks, and send out a little uncomfortable glowing, even as certain
matters do in these times, if you do but know the place and the time to
seek them. Yet was the light exceeding weak, and very cold and dismal,
and did seem truly to show naught with a sureness; so that it did appear
to the eye, if one did look fixedly, that there were shadows that did
move here or there, as it were of silent beings; and none might know, in
truth, whether this shaping of the greyness was to the clouding of the
Reason, or that the eye did see of Reality. Yet,