“There was a time of absolute quietness then for perhaps a couple of minutes; and you can imagine how horrible I felt.  The bedclothes had been thrown with such savageness!  And, then again, the brutal unnaturalness of the thing that had just been done before me!

“Abruptly, over by the door, I heard a faint noise—­a sort of crickling sound, and then a pitter or two upon the floor.  A great nervous thrill swept over me, seeming to run up my spine and over the back of my head; for the seal that secured the door had just been broken.  Something was there.  I could not see the door; at least, I mean to say that it was impossible to say how much I actually saw, and how much my imagination supplied.  I made it out, only as a continuation of the grey walls....  And then it seemed to me that something dark and indistinct moved and wavered there among the shadows.

“Abruptly, I was aware that the door was opening, and with an effort I reached again for my camera; but before I could aim it the door was slammed with a terrific crash that filled the whole room with a sort of hollow thunder.  I jumped, like a frightened child.  There seemed such a power behind the noise; as though a vast, wanton Force were ‘out.’  Can you understand?

“The door was not touched again; but, directly afterward, I heard the basket, in which the cat lay, creak.  I tell you, I fairly pringled all along my back.  I knew that I was going to learn definitely whether whatever was abroad was dangerous to Life.  From the cat there rose suddenly a hideous caterwaul, that ceased abruptly; and then—­too late—­I snapped off the flashlight.  In the great glare, I saw that the basket had been overturned, and the lid was wrenched open, with the cat lying half in, and half out upon the floor.  I saw nothing else, but I was full of the knowledge that I was in the presence of some Being or Thing that had power to destroy.

“During the next two or three minutes, there was an odd, noticeable quietness in the room, and you much remember I was half-blinded, for the time, because of the flashlight; so that the whole place seemed to be pitchy dark just beyond the shine of the Pentacle.  I tell you it was most horrible.  I just knelt there in the star, and whirled ’round, trying to see whether anything was coming at me.

“My power of sight came gradually, and I got a little hold of myself; and abruptly I saw the thing I was looking for, close to the ‘water circle.’  It was big and indistinct, and wavered curiously, as though the shadow of a vast spider hung suspended in the air, just beyond the barrier.  It passed swiftly ’round the circle, and seemed to probe ever toward me; but only to draw back with extraordinary jerky movements, as might a living person if they touched the hot bar of a grate.