listened, as you may well suppose, not in the most
tranquil state of mind, and then I heard an odd, gnawing sort of noise,
and then another dab upon one of the stairs."

"How dreadful!"

"It was. What to do I knew not, or what to think, except that the
vampyre had, by some means, got in at the attic window, and was coming
down stairs to my room. That seemed the most likely. Then there was
another groan, and then another heavy step; and, as they were evidently
coming towards my door, I felt accordingly, and got out of bed, not
knowing hardly whether I was on my head or my heels, to try and lock my
door."

"Ah, to be sure."

"Yes; that was all very well, if I could have done it; but a man in such
a state of mind as I was in is not a very sharp hand at doing anything.
I shook from head to foot. The room was very dark, and I couldn't, for a
moment or two, collect my senses sufficient really to know which way the
door lay."

"What a situation!"

"It was. Dab, dab, dab, came these horrid footsteps, and there was I
groping about the room in an agony. I heard them coming nearer and
nearer to my door. Another moment, and they must have reached it, when
my hand struck against the lock."

"What an escape!"

"No, it was not."

"No?"

"No, indeed. The key was on the outside, and you may well guess I was
not over and above disposed to open the door to get at it."

"No, no."

"I felt regularly bewildered, I can tell you; it seemed to me as if the
very devil himself was coming down stairs hopping all the way upon one
leg."

"How terrific!"

"I felt my senses almost leaving me; but I did what I could to hold the
door shut just as I heard the strange step come from the last stair on
to the landing. Then there was a horrid sound, and some one began trying
the lock of my door."

"What a moment!"

"Yes, I can tell you it was a moment. Such a moment as I don't wish to
go through again. I held the door as close as I could, and did not
speak. I tried to cry out help and murder, but I could not; my tongue
stuck to the roof of my mouth, and my strength was fast failing me."

"Horrid, horrid!"

"Take a drop of ale."

"Thank you. Well, I don't think this went on above two or three minutes,
and all the while some one tried might and main to push open the door.
My strength left me all at once; I had only time to stagger back a step
or two, and then, as the door opened, I fainted away."

"Well, well!"

"Ah, you wouldn