out,--but my tongue refused to obey me--and my voice was strangled in my throat. The Three remained absolutely motionless,--and again I rubbed my eyes, wondering if this were a dream or some hideous optical delusion. Trembling in every limb, I stretched my hand towards the bell intending to ring violently for assistance,--when--a Voice, low and thrilling with intense anguish, caused me to shrink back appalled, and my arm fell nerveless at my side. "_Misery!_" The word struck the air with a harsh reproachful clang, and I nearly swooned with the horror of it. For now one of the Figures moved, and a face gleamed out from beneath its hooded wrappings--a face white as whitest marble and fixed into such an expression of dreadful despair as froze my blood. Then came a deep sigh that was more like a death-groan, and again the word, "_Misery!_" shuddered upon the silence. Mad with fear, and scarcely knowing what I did, I sprang from the bed, and began desperately to advance upon these fantastic masqueraders, determined to seize them and demand the meaning of this practical and untimely jest,--when suddenly all Three lifted their heads and turned their faces on me,--such faces!--indescribably awful in their pallid agony,--and a whisper more ghastly than a shriek, penetrated the very fibres of my consciousness--"_Misery!_" With a furious bound I flung myself upon them,--my hands struck _empty space_. Yet there--distinct as ever--they stood, glowering down upon me, while my clenched fists beat impotently _through_ and _beyond_ their seemingly corporeal shapes! And then--all at once--I became aware of their eyes,--eyes that watched me pitilessly, stedfastly, and disdainfully,--eyes that like witch-fires, seemed to slowly burn terrific meanings into my very flesh and spirit. Convulsed and almost frantic with the strain on my nerves, I abandoned myself to despair,--this awful sight meant death I thought,--my last hour had surely come! Then--I saw the lips of one of those dreadful faces move ... some superhuman instinct in me leaped to life, ... in some strange way I thought I knew, or guessed the horror of what that next utterance would be, ... and with all my remaining force I cried out-- "No! No! Not that eternal Doom! ... Not yet!" Fighting the vacant air, I strove to beat back those intangible weird Shapes that loomed above me, withering up my soul with the fixed stare of their angry eyes, and with a choking call for help, I fell, as it were, into a pit of darkness, where I lay mercifully unconscious. XI