Something in the crescendo accents of his voice, something weird and ominous, caused my heart to press against my ribs, so that when he stopped, in my eagerness I cried out,

‘What?’

‘The beetle!’

As the words came from him in a kind of screech, the lamp went out, and the place was all in darkness, and I knew, so that the knowledge filled me with a sense of loathing, that with me, in the room, was the evil presence of the night before.  Two bright specks gleamed in front of me; something flopped from off the bed on to the ground; the thing was coming towards me across the floor.  It came slowly on, and on, and on.  I stood still, speechless in the sickness of my horror.  Until, on my bare feet, it touched me with slimy feelers, and my terror lest it should creep up my naked body lent me voice, and I fell shrieking like a soul in agony.

It may be that my shrieking drove it from me.  At least, it went.  I knew it went.  And all was still.  Until, on a sudden, the lamp flamed out again, and there, lying, as before, in bed, glaring at me with his baleful eyes, was the being whom, in my folly, or in my wisdom,—­whichever it was!—­I was beginning to credit with the possession of unhallowed, unlawful powers.

’You will say that to him; those two words; they only; no more.  And you will see what you will see.  But Paul Lessingham is a man of resolution.  Should he still persist in interference, or seek to hinder you, you will say those two words again.  You need do no more.  Twice will suffice, I promise you.—­Now go.—­Draw up the blind; open the window; climb through it.  Hasten to do what I have bidden you.  I wait here for your return,—­and all the way I shall be with you.’

CHAPTER VI

A SINGULAR FELONY

I went to the window; I drew up the blind, unlatching the sash, I threw it open; and clad, or, rather, unclad as I was, I clambered through it into the open air.  I was not only incapable of resistance, I was incapable of distinctly formulating the desire to offer resistance.  Some compelling influence moved me hither and hither, with completest disregard of whether I would or would not.

And yet, when I found myself without, I was conscious of a sense of exultation at having escaped from the miasmic atmosphere of that room of unholy memories.  And a faint hope began to dawn within my bosom that, as I increased the distance between myself and it, I might shake off something of the nightmare helplessness which numbed and tortured me.  I lingered for a moment by the window; then stepped over the short dividing wall into the street; and then again I lingered.