also himself now included in the mighty scheme?... In his mind he saw
this giant Skale, with his great limbs and shoulders, his flowing, shaggy
beard, his voice of thunder and his portentous speculations, and, so
doing, felt himself merged in a larger world that made his own little
terrors and anxieties of but small account. Once again the sense of his
own insignificance disappeared as he realized that at last he was in the
full flood of an adventure that was providing the kind of escape he had
always longed for.

Inevitably, then, his thought flew to Miriam, and as he remembered her
final word to him a few short hours ago in the hall below, he already
felt ashamed of the fear with which he had met the beginning of the
"test." He instantly felt steeped instead in the wonder and power of the
whole thing. His mind, though still trembling and shaken, came to rest.
He drew, that is, upon the larger powers of the Chord.

And the interesting thing was that the moment this happened he noticed a
change begin to come over the room. With extraordinary swiftness the tide
of vibration lessened and the sound withdrew; the humming seemed to sink
back into the depths of the house; the thrill and delight of his recent
terrors fled with it. The air gradually ceased to shake and tremble; the
furniture, with a curious final shiver as of spinning coins about to
settle, resumed its normal shape. Once more the room, and with it the
world, became commonplace and dull. The test apparently was over. He had
met it with success.

Spinrobin, holding the candle straight for the first time, turned back
towards the bed. He caught a passing glimpse of himself in the mirror as
he went--white and scattered he describes his appearance.... He climbed
again into bed, blew the candle out, put the matchbox under his pillow
within easy reach, and so once more curled himself up into a ball and
composed himself to sleep.

Chapter IX

I

But he was hardly settled--there had not even been time to warm the
sheets again--when he was aware that the test, instead of being over,
was, indeed, but just beginning; and the detail that conveyed this
unwelcome knowledge to him, though small enough in itself, was yet
fraught with a crowded cargo of new alarms. It was a step upon the
staircase, approaching his room.

He heard it the instant he lay still in bed after the shuffling process
known generally as "cuddling down." And he knew that it was approaching