oments before
speaking again.

"Do you hear?" he said. "You shouldn't have been in such a hurry. Open
the door, or I shall be upsetting some of your treasures."

Half angry with himself for his cowardice, as he called it, he repeated
his monologue and listened; but he could only hear the throbbings of his
own heart.

"Well, of all the ways of getting rid of an unwelcome guest--no joke
meant, old man--this is about the shadiest. Here," he cried, more
excitedly now, in spite of his efforts to be calm, "why don't you
speak?"

He did not step aside now, but stood firm, with his fists clenched,
ready to strike out with all his might in case of attack, though even
then he was fighting hard to force down the rising dread, and declaring
to himself that he was a mere child to be frightened at being in the
dark.

But he knew that he had good cause. Utter darkness is a horror of
itself when the confusion of being helpless and in total ignorance of
one's position is superadded. Nature plays strange pranks then with
one's mental faculties, even as she does with a traveller in some dense
fog, or the unfortunate who finds himself "bushed," or lost in the
primeval forest, far from help and with the balance of his mind upset.
He learns at such a time that his boasted strength of nerve is very
small indeed, and that the bravest and strongest man may succumb to a
dread that makes him as timid as a child.

Small as was the space in which he stood, and easy as it would have
been, after a little calm reflection, to find door or window, Guest felt
that he was rapidly losing his balance; for he dare not stir, face to
face as he was with the dread that Stratton really was mad, and that in
his cunning he had seized this opportunity for ridding himself of one
who must seem to him like a keeper always on the watch to thwart him.

He remained there silent, the cold sweat breaking out all over his face,
and his hearing strained to catch the sound of the slightest movement,
or even the heavy breathing of the man waiting for an opportunity to
strike him down.

For it was in vain to try and combat this feeling. He could find no
other explanation in his confused mental state. That must be Stratton's
intention, and the only thing to do was to be on the alert and master
him when the time for the great struggle came.

There were moments, as Guest stood there breathing as softly as he
could, when he felt that this horrible suspense must h