The Broad Highway

These evidences led me to believe that whoever had been here

before was likely to return, and, not doubting that this must be

he who had played the part of ghost so well, I determined to be

ready for him.

So, leaving all things as I found them, I descended, and, having

closed the trap, hung up the ladder as I had found it.

In the first of the rooms there was a rough fireplace built into

one corner, and as the air struck somewhat damp and chill, I went

out and gathered a quantity of twigs and dry wood, and had soon

built a cheerful, crackling fire. I now set about collecting

armfuls of dry leaves, which I piled against the wall for a bed.

By the time this was completed to my satisfaction, the moon was

peeping above the treetops, filling the Hollow with far-flung

shadows.

I now lay down upon my leafy couch, and fell to watching the fire

and listening to the small, soft song of the brook outside. In

the opposite wall was a window, the glass of which was long

since gone, through which I could see a square of sky, and the

glittering belt of Orion. My eyes wandered from this to the glow

of the fire many times, but gradually my head grew heavier and

heavier, until, at length, the stars became confused with the

winking sparks upon the hearth, and the last that I remember was

that the crackle of the fire sounded strangely like the voice of

the Ancient croaking: "A hijious thing, Peter, a hijious thing!"

I must have slept for an hour, or nearer two (for the room was

dark, save for a few glowing embers on the hearth, and the faint

light of the stars at the window), when I suddenly sat bolt

upright, with every tingling nerve straining as if to catch

something which had, but that very moment, eluded me. I was yet

wondering what this could be, when, from somewhere close outside

the cottage, there rose a sudden cry--hideous and appalling--a

long-drawn-out, bubbling scream (no other words can describe it),

that died slowly down to a wail only to rise again higher and

higher, till it seemed to pierce my very brain. Then all at once

it was gone, and silence rushed in upon me--a silence fraught

with fear and horror unimaginable.

I lay rigid, the blood in my veins jumping with every throb of my

heart till it seemed to shake me from head to foot. And then the

cry began again, deep and hoarse at first, but rising, rising

until the air thrilled with a scream such as no earthly lips

could utter.