ion that the thing that lurked at a distance
behind him, was quickening its movement, and coming up to seize him. The
dreadful fancy stung him like a goad, and, with a start, he accelerated
his flight, horribly conscious that what he feared was slinking along in
the shadow, close to the dark bulks of the houses, resolutely pursuing,
and bent on overtaking him. Faster! His footfalls rang hollowly and loud
on the moonlit pavement, and in contrast with their rapid thuds he felt
it as something peculiarly terrible that the furtive thing behind, slunk
after him with soundless feet. Faster, faster! Traversing only the most
unfrequented streets, and at that late hour of a cold winter night, he
met no one, and with a terrifying consciousness that his pursuer was
gaining on him, he desperately strode on. He did not dare to look
behind, dreading less what he might see, than the momentary loss of
speed the action might occasion. Faster, faster, faster! And all at once
he knew that the dogging thing had dropped its stealthy pace and was
racing up to him. With a bound he broke into a run, seeing, hearing,
heeding nothing, aware only that the other was silently louping on his
track two steps to his one; and with that frantic apprehension upon him,
he gained the next street, flung himself around the corner with his back
to the wall, and his arms convulsively drawn up for a grapple; and felt
something rush whirring past his flank, striking him on the shoulder as
it went by, with a buffet that made a shock break through his frame.
That shock restored him to his senses. His delusion was suddenly
shattered. The goblin was gone. He was free.

He stood panting, like one just roused from some terrible dream, wiping
the reeking perspiration from his forehead and thinking confusedly and
wearily what a fool he had been. He felt he had wandered a long distance
from his house, but had no distinct perception of his whereabouts. He
only knew he was in some thinly-peopled street, whose familiar aspect
seemed lost to him in the magical disguise the superb moonlight had
thrown over all. Suddenly a film seemed to drop from his eyes, as they
became riveted on a lighted window, on the opposite side of the way. He
started, and a secret terror crept over him, vaguely mixed with the
memory of the shock he had felt as he turned the last corner, and his
distinct, awful feeling that something invisible had passed him. At the
same instant he felt, and thrilled t