o quietness, and lacking of monsters.
Yet, in truth was I come to a worse place than any, maybe; for as I went
forward, striding very strong, and making a good speed, I did hear
presently a little noise upward in the night, and someways unto my left,
that had seeming as that it were a strange low sound that did come down
to me out of an hidden doorway above; for, indeed, though the sound did
come from very nigh, as it did seem no more than a score feet above my
head, yet was it a noise that did come out of a great and mighty
distance, and out of a Foreign Place. And I did know the Sound; though
never, as you may suppose, could I have heard it in all my life. Yet had
I read in one of the Records, and again in a second and a third, how
that certain of all they that had adventured from the Pyramid into the
Night Land to seek for knowledge, had chanced to hear a queer and
improper noise above them in the Night; and the noise had been strange,
and did come from but a little way upward in the darkness; yet was also
from a great and monstrous distance; and did seem to moan and hum
quietly, and to have a different sounding from all noises of earth. And
in the Records it was set forth that these were those same Doorways In
The Night, which were told of in an ancient and half-doubted Tale of the
World, that was much in favour of the children of the Pyramid, and not
disdained by certain of our wiser men, and had been thus through all the
latter ages.

And I did seem to know the sound upon the moment; for my heart grew
swift to understand. And it was a very dread uncomfortable sound; and
you shall know how it did seem, if you will conceive of a strange noise
that doth happen far away in the Country, and the same noise to seem to
come to you through an opened door near by. And this is but a poor way
to put it; yet how shall I make the thing more known to you? So that I
must even trust unto your wit and true sympathy that you shall conceive
of the fullness of my meaning.

Now, in all the Histories of those that had adventured into the Night
Land, there were but three sure Records that did concern this Sound; and
each did tell of a Great Horror; and of them that did hear the Sound
there had died the most part, out in the Night Land. And the Records did
make always that they had come upon Destruction, and not simply unto
Death; but were destroyed by a strange and Invisible Evil Power from the
Night.

And of those that came alive unt