Argosy All-Story Weekly — page 84: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

718 good night had been more effective for this situation than any arrangement of brave words, and for the second time gazed about his bright surroundings contentedly, glad that this room was reassuringly beautiful. He was glad to be there, although his skepti- cism had fallen from him as a leaf falls in an autumn wind, when those horrible tap- ping footsteps had seemed to approach them. Now he reassured himself that the sound came from some natural cause, and had been magnified by nerves; that, after all, the terror was only the influence of the others. At any rate, he was established as a hero for no more intrepid deed than facing a ridiculous ghost in which he had not the faintest belief. Crossing to the windows he made sure that they were open and the blinds ar- ranged so that he could receive any ran- dom breath of air moving on this stifling night, and for a second he leaned against the low stone balustrade of the tiny bal- cony and looked down on the stone court fragrant with flowers and orange trees be- low him. The little courtyard was so peace- ful and dark that he turned back to the bright room rather reluctantly. Without. pausing to undress, he blew out the candles, and feeling his way across the room, climbed on the bed and settled him- self as comfortably as he could. When he stopped moving there was not a sound. Strangely quiet it was, with not a whisper coming from the five people waiting so close to him, not a creak from the old walls or a moan from the old furniture. The sad and mysterious groans and murmurings with which old houses settle themselves at night were all stilled. For twenty minutes he lay listening, lis- tening, without shifting his feet or moving his head, as motionless as the hot night. For twenty minutes, while eons of time crawled by he lay rigid. ‘The silence wore on his nerves until finally the quiet and the heat and the heavy flower scents brought drowsiness. Relaxing, he settled himself on his bed with the natural gestures of sleepy men, turned over and was asleep. It was nearly an hour before he awoke, and then he came quickly out of his slum- ber, for he was roused by a shudder, a long 'ARGOSY-ALLSTORY WEEKLY, quivering shudder, such as would go through a man if a snake crawled over his stomach. He was awake instantly, wide awake and feeling the atmosphere about him as keenly as he had ever felt heat and cold. The air seemed charged with power as it does sometimes before an electric storm and his skin was pricked by the vibrations filling the room. In the darkness he waited, uneasy with the memory of that shudder, but not fright- ened, not at all panicky. It was quite dark and he could see nothing, and all was as quiet as it had been before he had fallen asleep, but now, all at once, he knew that coming toward him from the window was a creature, a thing. The faint light from the candle, too dim to distinguish objects by, but which enabled him to know the posi- tion of the windows, was not ‘obliterated by any solid form, and there was not a sound of anything moving. But still he knew that something was coming nearer to him from the direction of the open win- dows. So conscious was he that it was ad- vancing toward him, step by step, and very slowly, that he felt he could go to meet it, blind in the darkness, and put his hand on it and walk with it to his bed. The atmosphere grew heavier as it came nearer. There was no tingle in the air now, only oppression, and his head felt heavy and ached, and as it came closer and closer he realized that this was a very evil thing which was advancing on him in the night. Then he knew that it was very near him and the feeling of evil was so strong that he felt that evil as a physical thing. It became heavier. It seemed to fill the whole world. His brain and his heart and his lungs were filled with evil. He could taste it, he was breathing it, it per- vaded him like a foul smell and he waited with sickening repulsion for the thing that emanated this horror to stand over him. It came to the bottom of his bed and stopped and over him flowed waves of loath- ing and disgust. He loathed it, and dis- gust shook him, but as it stood there hate almost crowded out those strong emotions. He hated that thing as never he believed he could hate anything; terrible hate that shook him like an ague, and mingling with oO Eomichbooks (S@)