erberant
with the howling of wolves. The last sight that I remembered was a
vague, white, moving mass, as if all the graves around me had sent out
the phantoms of their sheeted-dead, and that they were closing in on
me through the white cloudiness of the driving hail.

* * * * *

Gradually there came a sort of vague beginning of consciousness; then
a sense of weariness that was dreadful. For a time I remembered
nothing; but slowly my senses returned. My feet seemed positively
racked with pain, yet I could not move them. They seemed to be numbed.
There was an icy feeling at the back of my neck and all down my spine,
and my ears, like my feet, were dead, yet in torment; but there was in
my breast a sense of warmth which was, by comparison, delicious. It
was as a nightmare--a physical nightmare, if one may use such an
expression; for some heavy weight on my chest made it difficult for me
to breathe.

This period of semi-lethargy seemed to remain a long time, and as it
faded away I must have slept or swooned. Then came a sort of loathing,
like the first stage of sea-sickness, and a wild desire to be free
from something--I knew not what. A vast stillness enveloped me, as
though all the world were asleep or dead--only broken by the low
panting as of some animal close to me. I felt a warm rasping at my
throat, then came a consciousness of the awful truth, which chilled me
to the heart and sent the blood surging up through my brain. Some
great animal was lying on me and now licking my throat. I feared to
stir, for some instinct of prudence bade me lie still; but the brute
seemed to realise that there was now some change in me, for it raised
its head. Through my eyelashes I saw above me the two great flaming
eyes of a gigantic wolf. Its sharp white teeth gleamed in the gaping
red mouth, and I could feel its hot breath fierce and acrid upon me.

For another spell of time I remembered no more. Then I became
conscious of a low growl, followed by a yelp, renewed again and again.
Then, seemingly very far away, I heard a 'Holloa! holloa!' as of many
voices calling in unison. Cautiously I raised my head and looked in
the direction whence the sound came; but the cemetery blocked my view.
The wolf still continued to yelp in a strange way, and a red glare
began to move round the grove of cypresses, as though following the
sound. As the voices drew closer, the wolf yelped faster and louder. I
feared to m