he saw nothing; but waited in the
darkness, for my warning to come true.

"Even as I took heed of these minor things, I saw the Child jump to one
side, and hide behind some half-seen object that was certainly nothing
belonging to the passage. I stared, intently, with a most extraordinary
thrill of expectant wonder, with fright making goose flesh of my back.
And even as I stared, I solved for myself the less important problem of
what the two black clouds were that hung over a part of the table. I
think it very curious and interesting, the double working of the mind,
often so much more apparent during times of stress. The two clouds came
from two faintly shining shapes, which I knew must be the metal of the
lanterns; and the things that looked black to the sight with which I was
then seeing, could be nothing else but what to normal human sight is
known as light. This phenomenon I have always remembered. I have twice
seen a somewhat similar thing; in the Dark Light Case and in that trouble
of Maetheson's, which you know about.

"Even as I understood this matter of the lights, I was looking to my
left, to understand why the Child was hiding. And suddenly, I heard the
landlord shout out:--'The Woman!' But I saw nothing. I had a
disagreeable sense that something repugnant was near to me, and I was
aware in the same moment that the landlord was gripping my arm in a hard,
frightened grip. Then I was looking back to where the Child had hidden. I
saw the Child peeping out from behind its hiding place, seeming to be
looking up the passage; but whether in fear I could not tell. Then it
came out, and ran headlong away, through the place where should have been
the wall of my mother's bedroom; but the Sense with which I was seeing
these things, showed me the wall only as a vague, upright shadow,
unsubstantial. And immediately the child was lost to me, in the dull
violet gloom. At the same time, I felt the landlord press back against
me, as if something had passed close to him; and he called out again, a
hoarse sort of cry:--'The Woman! The Woman!' and turned the shade
clumsily from off his lantern. But I had seen no Woman; and the passage
showed empty, as he shone the beam of his light jerkily to and fro; but
chiefly in the direction of the doorway of my mother's room.

"He was still clutching my arm, and had risen to his feet; and now,
mechanically and almost slowly, I picked up my lantern and turned on
the light. I shone it, a lit