she appeared before me, it might be from behind some black and awful crag, or rising like an emanation from the very earth at my feet, or just suddenly there in front of me coming as it were from nowhere--when she appeared, terrified as I might be, the impalpable horror which had wrapped me about fell away, and with a cry of hate I was at her with my knife, or, drawing my pistol, blazed full into her evil face. And at such moments I awoke, and took comfort in the knowledge that it was merely a dream, and soon the night would pass, though it seemed interminable, for each dream seemed the passage of a lifetime. But once I awoke from one of these struggles with the image of the old witch so clearly before me that I thought I must still be sleeping. I lay perfectly motionless, gazing into the darkness, and with clearing consciousness came slowly to the realization that I was awake, and yet the creature of my dreams was there before me. I closed my eyes, then looked again. Still there; not to my hand, but clear and unmistakable, the very creature as I had seen her with the firelight on her face, except that now it was the moon that lit up that ghastly countenance white instead of red, and with a steady glow instead of lurchingly like the leaping flames. The night was very quiet; but outside a faint wind was crooning gently, and breathing thin clouds across the sky. And with the waning of the moon the face sank slowly back into the blackness, and with its brightening it grew again, white and luminous against the dark. I couldn't see it move; but once it faded into the night, and when it appeared again it was nearer. How long I lay and watched I don't know. It seemed an age, but I think it must have been but a moment, though my head swarmed with a confusion of ideas. My father saying, "I haven't seen her ghost," caught at my memory; and I thought how glad he would be when I told him in the morning that her ghost had appeared to me; for somehow it seemed to me that the revelation would bring him ease. I remember wondering too why a ghost should fade and grow with the moonlight; for I had always thought of ghosts as glowing with a radiance of their own. What it was that stirred me to action I can't say. It might have been the realization that the thing was drawing nearer; or, as I believe, the many visionary contests of the night, mingled perhaps with a stirring memory deep in my mind, had unconsciously led my hand beneath the pillow where I suddenly realized that my fingers had closed upon my pistol. Then indeed I knew what I would do. Slowly I drew the weapon out, and with infinite caution levelled it at the creature's face. And now I could see it visibly drawing nearer with a gliding stealth. Its arm was raised, and I caught the glitter of steel. But just then I pulled the trigger.