His voice was lowered and instinctively we leaned toward him; he was gripping the chair arms and the blood was seeping from his lip. "Then the sun sets and the shadows come and I stagger on and fall and rise and reel on again. And I laugh, laugh, laugh! Then I cease, for the moon comes up and throws the grasslands in ghostly and silvery relief. The light is white across the land, though the moon itself is like blood. And I look back the way I have come--and far--back"--all of us leaned farther toward him, our hair a-prickle; his voice came like a ghostly whisper--"far back--I--see--the--grass--waving. There is no breeze, but the tall grass parts and sways in the moonlight, in a narrow, sinuous line--far away, but nearing every instant." His voice died away. Somebody broke the ensuing stillness: "And then----?" "Then I awake. Never yet have I seen the foul monster. But that is the dream that haunts me, and from which I have wakened, in my childhood screaming, in my manhood in cold sweat. At irregular intervals I dream it, and each time, lately"--he hesitated and then went on--"each time lately, the thing has been getting closer--closer--the waving of the grass marks his progress and he nears me with each dream; and when he reaches me, then----" He stopped short, then without a word rose abruptly and entered the house. The rest of us sat silent for awhile, then followed him, for it was late. * * * * * How long I slept I do not know, but I woke suddenly with the impression that somewhere in the house someone had laughed, long, loud and hideously, as a maniac laughs. Starting up, wondering if I had been dreaming, I rushed from my room, just as a truly horrible shriek echoed through the house. The place was now alive with other people who had been awakened, and all of us rushed to Faming's room, whence the sounds had seemed to come. Faming lay dead upon the floor, where it seemed he had fallen in some terrific struggle. There was no mark upon him, but his face was terribly distorted; as the face of a man who had been crushed by some superhuman force--such as some gigantic snake.