. Was it a shape of my fancy,
or was it horrible reality that I heard and saw on that night? I know
not. I only remember that, as the wildest thoughts were flowing through
my heart, a singular sound came to my ear." I had got so far,
absorbingly, spiritually interested, when I heard a laugh, a long, low
chuckle, that seemed to come from the darkest and most remote corner of
the room. A cold paroxysm froze my body, the book slid from my hands,
and I sat upright in my chair, every faculty within me acutely alert and
active. The laugh was repeated, this time from behind a writing-table in
quite another part of the room. Something which sounded like a shower of
tintacks then fell into the grate; after which there was a long pause,
and then a terrific bump, as if some heavy body had fallen from a great
height on to the floor immediately in front of me. I even heard the
hissing and whizzing the body made in its descent as it cut its passage
through the air. Again there came an interval of tranquillity broken
only by the sounds of people in the road, the hurrying footsteps of a
girl, the clattering of a man in hobnails, the quick, sharp tread of the
lamplighter, and the scampering patter of a bevy of children. Then there
came a series of knockings on the ceiling, and then the sound of
something falling into a gaping abyss which I intuitively felt had
surreptitiously opened at my feet.

For many seconds I listened to the reverberations of the object as it
dashed against the sides of the unknown chasm; at length there was a
splash, succeeded by hollow echoes. Shaking in every limb, I shrank back
as far as I possibly could in my chair and clutched the arms. A draught,
cold and dank, as if coming from an almost interminable distance, blew
upwards and fanned my nostrils. Then there came the most appalling, the
most blood-curdling chuckle, and I saw a hand--a lurid grey hand with
long, knotted fingers and black, curved nails--feeling its way towards
me, through the subtle darkness, like some enormous, unsavoury insect.
Nearer, nearer, and nearer it drew, its fingers waving in the air,
antennae fashion. For a moment it paused, and then, with lightning
rapidity, snatched the book from my knees and disappeared. Directly
afterwards I heard the sound of a latchkey inserted in the front door,
whilst the voice of my wife inquiring why the house was in darkness
broke the superphysical spell. Obeying her summons, I ascended the
staircase, an