out other people's affairs," I answered
sharply, for the individual's manner, combined with my utter uncertainty
as to his appearance, oppressed me with an irksome longing to be rid of
him.

"O, you don't? Well, I do. I know what they are--well, well, well!" and
as he pronounced the three last words his voice rose with each, until,
with the last, it reached a shrill shriek that echoed horribly among the
lonely walks. "Do you know what they eat?" he continued.

"No, sir,--nor care."

"O, but you will care. You must care. You shall care. I'll tell you what
they are. They are enchanters. They are ghouls. They are cannibals. Did
you never remark their eyes, and how they gloated on you when you
passed? Did you never remark the food that they served up at your table?
Did you never in the dead of night hear muffled and unearthly footsteps
gliding along the corridors, and stealthy hands turning the handle of
your door? Does not some magnetic influence fold itself continually
around you when they pass, and send a thrill through spirit and body,
and a cold shiver that no sunshine will chase away? O, you have! You
have felt all these things! I know it!"

The earnest rapidity, the subdued tones, the eagerness of accent, with
which all this was uttered, impressed me most uncomfortably. It really
seemed as if I could recall all those weird occurrences and influences
of which he spoke; and I shuddered in spite of myself in the midst of
the impenetrable darkness that surrounded me.

"Hum!" said I, assuming, without knowing it, a confidential tone, "may I
ask you how you know these things?"

"How I know them? Because I am their enemy; because they tremble at my
whisper; because I hang upon their track with the perseverance of a
bloodhound and the stealthiness of a tiger; because--because--I was _of_
them once!"

"Wretch!" I cried excitedly, for involuntarily his eager tones had
wrought me up to a high pitch of spasmodic nervousness, "then you mean
to say that you----"

As I uttered this word, obeying an uncontrollable impulse, I stretched
forth my hand in the direction of the speaker and made a blind clutch.
The tips of my fingers seemed to touch a surface as smooth as glass,
that glided suddenly from under them. A sharp, angry hiss sounded
through the gloom, followed by a whirring noise, as if some projectile
passed rapidly by, and the next moment I felt instinctively that I was
alone.

A most disagreeable feeling instantly