? They would most certainly
have shouted, and vague as this sound was which had wakened me, it was
very distinct from the human voice. I sat palpitating and hardly
daring to breathe. There it was again! And again! Now it had become
continuous. It was a tread--yes, surely it was the tread of some
living creature. But what a tread it was! It gave one the impression
of enormous weight carried upon sponge-like feet, which gave forth a
muffled but ear-filling sound. The darkness was as complete as ever,
but the tread was regular and decisive. And it was coming beyond all
question in my direction.

My skin grew cold, and my hair stood on end as I listened to that
steady and ponderous footfall. There was some creature there, and
surely by the speed of its advance, it was one which could see in the
dark. I crouched low on my rock and tried to blend myself into it.
The steps grew nearer still, then stopped, and presently I was aware of
a loud lapping and gurgling. The creature was drinking at the stream.
Then again there was silence, broken by a succession of long sniffs and
snorts of tremendous volume and energy. Had it caught the scent of me?
My own nostrils were filled by a low fetid odour, mephitic and
abominable. Then I heard the steps again. They were on my side of the
stream now. The stones rattled within a few yards of where I lay.
Hardly daring to breathe, I crouched upon my rock. Then the steps drew
away. I heard the splash as it returned across the river, and the
sound died away into the distance in the direction from which it had
come.

For a long time I lay upon the rock, too much horrified to move. I
thought of the sound which I had heard coming from the depths of the
cave, of Armitage's fears, of the strange impression in the mud, and
now came this final and absolute proof that there was indeed some
inconceivable monster, something utterly unearthly and dreadful, which
lurked in the hollow of the mountain. Of its nature or form I could
frame no conception, save that it was both light-footed and gigantic.
The combat between my reason, which told me that such things could not
be, and my senses, which told me that they were, raged within me as I
lay. Finally, I was almost ready to persuade myself that this
experience had been part of some evil dream, and that my abnormal
condition might have conjured up an hallucination. But there remained
one final experience which removed the last possibilit