d the keen knife-blade; if worse came to worse that
was available for release. I passed it caressingly through my fingers,
wondering would God forgive its use if the moment came when I must
choose between insanity and death.

Merciful Heaven! how time dragged! What awful conceptions were formed
in my fevered brain! What leering, sardonic faces pictured themselves
against the black wall; what demon voices spoke and laughed in the void
above! At times I stood in a cave thronged with jeering devils, some
with the savage countenance of the heathen, some yet more satanic; yet
ever in the midst of their maddest orgies, the cruel mockery of the
infamous Naladi appeared more hellish than that of the rest. She
leered down upon me from every side until I seemed to stare into a
thousand faces, each wearing her hateful, sardonic smile.

I paced the floor with feverish impatience, counting my steps from wall
to wall, hoping by this means to retain control of my brain.
Experiencing the sharp pangs of hunger, I slashed a bit of leather from
my belt, and chewed it savagely as a dog might chew a dry bone. In my
despair, I danced, snapping my fingers, and hurling bitter taunts at
the unseen upper world. Exhausted by such useless frenzy, I would sink
prone to the floor, every nerve unstrung, lying there panting in
helplessness until returning strength again sent me back and forth in
that awful tramp from wall to wall. I perceived that the strain of
that horrible haunted silence was driving me mad. There was no escape,
no hope, no peace. Again and again did I break from incoherent ravings
to sink upon my knees, beseeching God for mercy. Yet I arose without
rest, without peace. At last I sank weakly down against the wall and
lay trembling in every limb, staring blindly with wide-open, unseeing
eyes.

I had come to the very end--to that moment when my limbs refused longer
to support my swaying body, when my tortured brain was picturing scenes
of hellish ingenuity. Ah! look! see! yonder comes now another to
torment my soul. O God! Mark that grim, gray face floating against
the wall! Away, you foul fiend! I am not yet your prey! But see! see
how the ghastly horror grows! It is as large as a man; and mark those
long, gaunt arms reaching up until they meet overhead. Suddenly it
seemed to shed a strange, unnatural radiance over the cave. I imagined
I saw things about me. What, Mother of Mercies, can it be? Daylight!
Oh,