And I gat an abrupt and horrid shaking of the spirit; for I did feel in
verity that my soul had come too anigh; and that the Beast had a sure
knowledge concerning me; yet did make to my destruction with no haste;
but after that way and fashion that did seem proper unto it.
And this feeling you shall understand the better, maybe, when I do tell
that it was to me as that the air all about me was full of a quiet and
steadfast life and keen intelligence that I did believe to come forth
from the Watcher on every side; so that I did feel as one already within
the gaze of some Great and Evil Power.
Yet, though I had a great terror upon me, I made no foolish haste; but
commanded my soul to courage, and put a guard upon my way of going, and
so made a very quiet journey for maybe two full miles; and afterwards
did allow myself something more of haste; for I was now grown easier in
my spirit; and felt apart from the spirit of the Great Watcher.
And after a longer while, I did leave that hill of watchfulness to my
rear; and was gone onward into the night; yet, as may be known, with a
vague unease and trouble to my heart, and a swift and frequent turning
to learn surely that no Evil Thing came after me. For, as you may know,
I could nowise have forgetting, concerning that great quiet Life which
did seem to be living in all the air around that Mighty Bulk. For it had
been all about me in the night, as I have told, and I to feel that I had
been surely discovered! And thus shall you know how shaken was my
spirit, in verity.
Now, presently, at the eighteenth hour of that day's travel, I ceased
from my journeying, that I might eat and drink; and I did sit a little
while, and looked back upon the strange and monstrous thing which I had
come beyond. And the great humped back and vast shoulders of the
Watching-Thing rose up into the night, black and cumbrous against the
red shine of the Pit. And thus, as you shall think, had that Brute
looked always unto the Mighty Pyramid, through Eternity, and did cease
not from watching, and was steadfast and silent and alone; and none did
understand.
And after I had eat, and drunk some of the water, I went onward for a
full matter of six hours more; being minded to have no sleep until I had
put a great way between me and the Watcher. And in this part of my
journey did I come to The Place Where The Silent Ones Kill, as it was
named in the Maps. And I observed a very wondrous caution, and went away
from it a little, unto the North, where I did see at a distance the
shinings of fire-holes; the which did promise me warmth through my
slumber.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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