rowled and snarled like a wild animal.

"Put her outside!" the Count said with an impatient gesture; "and take
good care she does not get in here again."

"No! Don't turn me away! Don't! don't!" Martha screamed; "I forgot what
it was I wanted to tell you--but I remember now. I've seen it!--seen the
thing that stole my child. There is light--light again! Oh! hear me!"

"Where have you seen it, Martha?" the porter inquired; and looking at
the Count, he said respectfully: "It is just possible, your honour,
this woman might be of use to us, and that she has actually seen the
person who stole her child."

"Rubbish! What right has she to have children?" the Count snapped, and
he spurned the supplicant with his boot.

The moment she was in the street, however, the head of the police was
after her. Keeping close behind her, he resolutely dogged her steps. The
evening was now far advanced, and the fog so dense that the Count,
though he knew the city, was soon at a total loss as to his whereabouts.
But on and on the woman went, now deviating to the right, now to the
left; sometimes pausing as if listening, then tearing on again at such a
rate that the Count was obliged to run to keep up with her. Suddenly she
uttered a shrill cry:

"There it is! There it is! The thing that took my child!" and the figure
of what certainly appeared to be a woman, muffled, and carrying a sack
on her shoulder, glided across the road just in front of them and
disappeared in the impenetrable darkness. Martha sped after her, and the
Count, his hopes raised high, followed in hot pursuit. He failed to
recognize the ground they were traversing, and presently they came to a
high wall, over which Martha scrambled with the agility of an acrobat.
The Count, in attempting to imitate her, damaged his knee and tore his
clothes, but he also landed safely on the other side. Then on they went,
Martha with unabated energy, the Count horribly exhausted, and beginning
to think of turning back, when they were abruptly brought to a
standstill. The walls of some building loomed right ahead of them. The
object of their pursuit, again visible, darted through a doorway; whilst
Martha, with a loud cry of triumph, sprang in after her; but before the
Count could cross the threshold the door was slammed and locked in his
face. Then he heard a chorus of the most appalling sounds--sounds so
strange and unearthly that his blood turned to ice and his hair rose
straight on end.