I let my gaze wander across the half-lighted room.  By the great clock in the far corner, is a dark, tall shadow.  For a short instant, I stare, frightenedly.  Then, I see that it is nothing, and am, momentarily, relieved.

In the time that follows, the thought flashes through my brain, why not leave this house—­this house of mystery and terror?  Then, as though in answer, there sweeps up, across my sight, a vision of the wondrous Sea of Sleep,—­the Sea of Sleep where she and I have been allowed to meet, after the years of separation and sorrow; and I know that I shall stay on here, whatever happens.

Through the side window, I note the somber blackness of the night.  My glance wanders away, and ’round the room; resting on one shadowy object and another.  Suddenly, I turn, and look at the window on my right; as I do so, I breathe quickly, and bend forward, with a frightened gaze at something outside the window, but close to the bars.  I am looking at a vast, misty swine-face, over which fluctuates a flamboyant flame, of a greenish hue.  It is the Thing from the arena.  The quivering mouth seems to drip with a continual, phosphorescent slaver.  The eyes are staring straight into the room, with an inscrutable expression.  Thus, I sit rigidly—­frozen.

The Thing has begun to move.  It is turning, slowly, in my direction.  Its face is coming ’round toward me.  It sees me.  Two huge, inhumanly human, eyes are looking through the dimness at me.  I am cold with fear; yet, even now, I am keenly conscious, and note, in an irrelevant way, that the distant stars are blotted out by the mass of the giant face.

A fresh horror has come to me.  I am rising from my chair, without the least intention.  I am on my feet, and something is impelling me toward the door that leads out into the gardens.  I wish to stop; but cannot.  Some immutable power is opposed to my will, and I go slowly forward, unwilling and resistant.  My glance flies ’round the room, helplessly, and stops at the window.  The great swine-face has disappeared, and I hear, again, that stealthy pad, pad, pad.  It stops outside the door—­the door toward which I am being compelled....

There succeeds a short, intense silence; then there comes a sound.  It is the rattle of the latch, being slowly lifted.  At that, I am filled with desperation.  I will not go forward another step.  I make a vast effort to return; but it is, as though I press back, upon an invisible wall.  I groan out loud, in the agony of my fear, and the sound of my voice is frightening.  Again comes that rattle, and I shiver, clammily.  I try—­aye, fight and struggle, to hold back, back; but it is no use....

I am at the door, and, in a mechanical way, I watch my hand go forward, to undo the topmost bolt.  It does so, entirely without my volition.  Even as I reach up toward the bolt, the door is violently shaken, and I get a sickly whiff of mouldy air, which seems to drive in through the interstices of the doorway.  I draw the bolt back, slowly, fighting, dumbly, the while.  It comes out of its socket, with a click, and I begin to shake, aguishly.  There are two more; one at the bottom of the door; the other, a massive affair, is placed about the middle.