listened, waited. Once more that steady pull began, and once more I lay

torpid a century of dragging seconds till my breast was naked again. At

last I roused my energies and snatched the covers back to their place and

held them with a strong grip. I waited. By and by I felt a faint tug,

and took a fresh grip. The tug strengthened to a steady strain--it grew

stronger and stronger. My hold parted, and for the third time the

blankets slid away. I groaned. An answering groan came from the foot of

the bed! Beaded drops of sweat stood upon my forehead. I was more dead

than alive. Presently I heard a heavy footstep in my room--the step of

an elephant, it seemed to me--it was not like anything human. But it was

moving from me--there was relief in that. I heard it approach the door

-pass out without moving bolt or lock--and wander away among the dismal

corridors, straining the floors and joists till they creaked again as it

passed--and then silence reigned once more.

When my excitement had calmed, I said to myself, "This is a dream--simply

a hideous dream." And so I lay thinking it over until I convinced myself

that it was a dream, and then a comforting laugh relaxed my lips and I

was happy again. I got up and struck a light; and when I found that the

locks and bolts were just as I had left them, another soothing laugh

welled in my heart and rippled from my lips. I took my pipe and lit it,

and was just sitting down before the fire, when--down went the pipe out of

my nerveless fingers, the blood forsook my cheeks, and my placid

breathing was cut short with a gasp! In the ashes on the hearth, side by

side with my own bare footprint, was another, so vast that in comparison

mine was but an infant's! Then I had had a visitor, and the elephant

268

Sketches New and Old