ous
weight. Again I thought myself imprisoned in a huge cake of soap, which
closed about me slowly and with irresistible force while I vainly tried
to force it back with my hands to keep from smothering. For a long time
I seemed to be beneath a dark cloud which dissolved into glittering
points of light, only to be swallowed up in darkness again. After a time
I seemed to be struggling to free myself from a huge, soft object which
lay upon my chest and threatened to strangle me. I discovered at last
that it was the dead body of Boris, the great mastiff, which, try as I
would, I could not free myself from. Presently the dog seemed to become
suddenly alive and its huge, dripping jaws opened and closed tightly
upon my throat. I struggled madly to extricate myself from his grasp,
but I seemed to be slowly, but surely, choking to death. In a madness of
fear I half awoke, trembling and weak, and, with a cry, thrust the
imaginary body of the animal from me and sprang to my feet in the bed.
I saw nothing but the faint light of the window opposite me, and with a
mad desire for air I sprang violently toward it, my right foot, as I
lurched heavily outward, coming down upon the wooden stool by the side
of the bed. And, as I thus dashed headlong in the direction of the
window, gasping desperately for breath, I suddenly felt a violent
glancing blow upon the side of my head, that shook me to the very
marrow, and stretched me stunned and unconscious upon the floor.

I must have remained in this position for several moments, although I
had no means of knowing, when I slowly awoke to consciousness, how long
a time my insensibility had lasted. Slowly my mind began to grasp the
fact that something strange, almost unbelievable, had happened to me,
although what it was I did not then understand. I seemed to be swimming
in a vast limitless space, filled with light, which gradually
contracted until it became a single glowing spark which seemed to be
myself, my intelligence. This process of coming back, as it were, seemed
to take an age, yet I know now that it could not have been more than a
few brief moments. When at last I opened my eyes, and realized my
situation, I was intensely weak, and still gasping madly for air. I
seemed unable to breathe--my lungs, my heart seemed oppressed as though
by heavy weights. I slowly and painfully struggled to my knees and
raised my hand to my head, which seemed ready to burst with pain. It
came away dripping