rk,
indefinite shape of something very horrid, but which I could not--I dare
not--define. It was accompanied by the clanging of a pail. I tried to
scream, but my tongue cleaving to the roof of my mouth prevented my
uttering a syllable, and when I essayed to move, I found I was
temporarily paralysed. The thing came rushing down on me. I grew icy
cold all over, and when it was within a few feet of me, my horror was so
great, I fainted.

"On recovering consciousness, it was some minutes before I summoned up
courage to open my eyes, but when I did so, they alighted on nothing but
the empty passage--the thing had disappeared.

"On another occasion, when I was clandestinely paying a visit to the
unused wing, and was in the act of mounting one of the staircases
leading from the corridor, I have just described, to the first floor,
there was the sound of a furious scuffle overhead, and something dashed
down the stairs past me. I instinctively looked up, and there, glaring
down at me from over the balustrade, was a very white face. It was that
of a man, but very badly proportioned--the forehead being low and
receding, and the rest of the face too long and narrow. The crown rose
to a kind of peak, the ears were pointed and set very low down and far
back. The mouth was very cruel and thin-lipped; the teeth were yellow
and uneven. There was no hair on the face, but that on the head was red
and matted. The eyes were obliquely set, pale blue, and full of an
expression so absolutely malignant that every atom of blood in my veins
seemed to congeal as I met their gaze. I could not clearly see the body
of the thing, as it was hazy and indistinct, but the impression I got of
it was that it was clad in some sort of tight-fitting, fantastic
garment. As the landing was in semi-darkness, and the face at all events
was most startlingly visible, I concluded it brought with it a light of
its own, though there was none of that lurid glow attached to it, which
I subsequently learned is almost inseparable from spirit phenomena seen
under similar conditions.

"For some seconds, I was too overcome with terror to move, but my
faculties at length reasserting themselves, I turned round and flew to
the other wing of the house with the utmost precipitation.

"One would have thought that after these experiences nothing would have
induced me to have run the risk of another such encounter, yet only a
few days after the incident of the head, I was again im