“Suddenly, all around us, there sounded a drip, drip, drip, upon the floor of the great hall.  I thrilled with a queer, realizing emotion, and a sense of a very real and present danger—­imminent. The ‘blood-drip’ had commenced.  And the grim question was now whether the Barriers could save us from whatever had come into the huge room.

“Through some awful minutes the ‘blood-drip’ continued to fall in an increasing rain; and presently some began to fall within the Barriers.  I saw several great drops splash and star upon the pale glowing intertwining tubes of the Electric Pentacle; but, strangely enough, I could not trace that any fell among us.  Beyond the strange horrible noise of the ‘drip,’ there was no other sound.  And then, abruptly, from the boarhound over in the far corner, there came a terrible yelling howl of agony, followed instantly by a sickening, breaking noise, and an immediate silence.  If you have ever, when out shooting, broken a rabbit’s neck, you will know the sound—­in miniature!  Like lightning, the thought sprang into my brain:—­IT has crossed the Pentacle. For you will remember that I had made one about each of the dogs.  I thought instantly, with a sick apprehension, of our own Barriers.  There was something in the hall with us that had passed the Barrier of the Pentacle about one of the dogs.  In the awful succeeding silence, I positively quivered.  And suddenly, one of the men behind me, gave out a scream, like any woman, and bolted for the door.  He fumbled, and had it open in a moment.  I yelled to the others not to move; but they followed like sheep, and I heard them kick the candles flying, in their panic.  One of them stepped on the Electric Pentacle, and smashed it, and there was an utter darkness.  In an instant, I realized that I was defenseless against the powers of the Unknown World, and with one savage leap I was out of the useless Barriers, and instantly through the great doorway, and into the night.  I believe I yelled with sheer funk.

“The men were a little ahead of me, and I never ceased running, and neither did they.  Sometimes, I glanced back over my shoulder; and I kept glancing into the laurels which grew all along the drive.  The beastly things kept rustling, rustling in a hollow sort of way, as though something were keeping parallel with me, among them.  The rain had stopped, and a dismal little wind kept moaning through the grounds.  It was disgusting.

“I caught Wentworth and the police at the lodge gate.  We got outside, and ran all the way to the village.  We found old Dennis up, waiting for us, and half the villagers to keep him company.  He told us that he had known in his ‘sowl’ that we should come back, that is, if we came back at all; which is not a bad rendering of his remark.

“Fortunately, I had brought my camera away from the house—­possibly because the strap had happened to be over my head.  Yet, I did not go straight away to develop; but sat with the rest of the bar, where we talked for some hours, trying to be coherent about the whole horrible business.