“You may well ask that!” said Mrs Colville.

“The fact is, I am a sleep-walker, and the last two nights I have been without my sleeping mixture.  There is nothing to be alarmed about, really.  I am sorry I made such an ass of myself.  I will go over the down to Shoreham, and get some stuff to make me sleep soundly.  I ought to have done that yesterday.”

But half-way over the down, by the chalk pits, the moth came upon Hapley again.  He went on, trying to keep his mind upon chess problems, but it was no good.  The thing fluttered into his face, and he struck at it with his hat in self-defence.  Then rage, the old rage—­the rage he had so often felt against Pawkins—­came upon him again.  He went on, leaping and striking at the eddying insect.  Suddenly he trod on nothing, and fell headlong.

There was a gap in his sensations, and Hapley found himself sitting on the heap of flints in front of the opening of the chalkpits, with a leg twisted back under him.  The strange moth was still fluttering round his head.  He struck at it with his hand, and turning his head saw two men approaching him.  One was the village doctor.  It occurred to Hapley that this was lucky.  Then it came into his mind, with extraordinary vividness, that no one would ever be able to see the strange moth except himself, and that it behoved him to keep silent about it.

Late that night, however, after his broken leg was set, he was feverish and forgot his self-restraint.  He was lying flat on his bed, and he began to run his eyes round the room to see if the moth was still about.  He tried not to do this, but it was no good.  He soon caught sight of the thing resting close to his hand, by the night-light, on the green table-cloth.  The wings quivered.  With a sudden wave of anger he smote at it with his fist, and the nurse woke up with a shriek.  He had missed it.

“That moth!” he said; and then, “It was fancy.  Nothing!”

All the time he could see quite clearly the insect going round the cornice and darting across the room, and he could also see that the nurse saw nothing of it and looked at him strangely.  He must keep himself in hand.  He knew he was a lost man if he did not keep himself in hand.  But as the night waned the fever grew upon him, and the very dread he had of seeing the moth made him see it.  About five, just as the dawn was grey, he tried to get out of bed and catch it, though his leg was afire with pain.  The nurse had to struggle with him.

On account of this, they tied him down to the bed.  At this the moth grew bolder, and once he felt it settle in his hair.  Then, because he struck out violently with his arms, they tied these also.  At this the moth came and crawled over his face, and Hapley wept, swore, screamed, prayed for them to take it off him, unavailingly.