ore of disgust and aversion than
terror.

He was tall and bony, immensely powerful, and his black skin showed
with a grayish shine upon it through the rents in his rags. His
gray-black, horny toes protruded through what once had been shoes,
and a shapeless, colorless felt hat covered his bullet head. His
corded black arms emerged from the torn sleeves of his checked
shirt, and his hairy chest was naked. There came from him an
indescribable reek of tobacco, whisky, filthy clothes, and the
beastlike odor of an unclean body. He was beardless, and his
gorilla-like nostrils twitched, his forehead wrinkled. His eyes were
mere pin-points, with a sort of red glare far back in them; his
mouth was like a dirty red muzzle. He was a prowling tramp, of the
worst sort.

Involuntarily he stopped in his tracks as I faced him, his hands
hanging loosely at his sides. His eyes swept greedily over
me--silver mesh-purse, wrist-watch, the brooch at my throat, the
rings on my fingers.

"Whut yuh doin' hyuh, w'ite lady?" he asked in a thick voice, and
grinned. And quite suddenly such a fear as I had not dreamed could
be felt by a mortal took me by the heart and squeezed it as with an
iron hand.

"Whut foh yuh come by mah field, lil w'ite lady?" he purred. "Ah'm
takin' lil snooze in de ditch grass, an' dey yuh comes, wakin' me
up! Whut yuh wake me up for, w'ite gal?" Leering, he began with a
gliding, stealthy movement to advance.

"Stop!" cried I, in a voice that wasn't mine, it was so sharp and
thin and reedy. "Go back--where you came from! Don't you dare to
take another step! Go back!"

The hands hooked into outstretched claws. His head sunk between his
shoulders. Of the eyes, only red pin-points showed in the twitching
face. I stood stone-still, struck into utter immobility. My brain
was trying to urge me to fly, fly! This is the Black Death, Sophy!
the Black Death!

He, too, stood of a sudden stone-still, as if rooted to the ground.
His eyes widened, and stared, as if he saw something over and beyond
me. I didn't dare turn my head. It might be a trick, to divert
attention for a fatal second.

The claws clenched into balled fists, the lips drew back, showing
blackened and decayed teeth. Bristling like an aroused beast, his
forehead wrinkling, his nostrils twitching, he made an inarticulate,
growling, brute-like noise in his throat. His head twisted sideways.
Of a sudden the sweat burst out upon his face, and he began to back
aw