t not so distant, as might be thought; for, oft, I did go less
than one mile in an hour or maybe two hours, having to be of great
caution, and oft to hide, and to go upon my belly, or to crawl, all as
might be. And, further, as you may have perceived, I made not a straight
forwardness; but did strike this way and that way, being very intent to
escape the Monsters and Evil Forces that were all about.

Now, because that I believed that I travelled in a Place where was
surely to be discovered those strange Doorways within the Night, I made
an especial care of my going; and did stop oft that I might listen, and
watch, and keep a very strict ward in all the Night about me. Yet, as
you shall see, this served not to prevent me from going forward into the
fearfulness of that which did haunt all the void; for, sudden, as I went
carefully, I heard a faint humming noise come downward from the night a
little unto my rear; and the humming noise did grow more plain, as that
a door were opened slowly above, and did let out that Sound ever more
loud. And surely, after I did hear that, I could not doubt that a door
were opened upward there; for the noise did grow in such wise as you
shall hear a distant sound come through, when a door truly is oped; for,
if the noise had been made just in that place, it had seemed to come
from there; but this Sound, though it did come _through_ there, was as
that it did come outward from some far lost and foreign Eternity. And
this I do struggle always to make plain; and you shall not blame me that
I think overmuch upon it; for, in truth there was an horror so wondrous
and drear about it, that I can forget not; but do strive always that
others should know with me that peculiar woe and terror that did haunt
the night.

Now, as you will see, I had in truth gone past the place where the
Doorway in the Night did open; yet had come to no harm; but rather it
did seem that it opened by chance, unwotting that I was anigh; or it may
be that my quiet passing did disturb an Evil Power, so that it did even
come to listen, or to make search. And all this doth pass through my
brain, as I do write, and it doth seem to me that my thoughts are but
the thoughts of a little child, before so great a mystery; and that I
touch not even the edge and fringe of the truth with my thinkings, and
so do cease upon them; and will but go forward so plain as I may with my
telling. Now, as you may truly believe, when I heard that Sound