they seemed to me to shuffle in their walk rather more than vas
necessary. It must have been a signal, for, as they came opposite
the door, I saw it swing back upon its hinges, as it had swung
that morning, with Mr. Jermyn. Both men entered the house
swiftly, just as the city churches, one after the other, chimed
half-past nine o'clock. Almost directly afterwards I got the
start of my life. I was looking into the dark upper room across
the lane, expecting nothing, when suddenly, out of the darkness,
so terribly that I was scared beyond screaming, two large red
eyes glowed, over a mouth that trembled in fire. I started back
in my seat, sick with fright, but I could not take my eyes away.
I watched that horrid thing, with my hair stiffening on my head.
Then in the room below it, the luminous figure of an owl gleamed
out. That was not the worst, either. I heard that savage,
"chacking" noise which brown owls make when they are perched.
This great gleaming owl, five times greater than any earthly owl,
was making that chacking noise, as though it would soon spread
its wings, to swoop on some such wretched mouse as myself. I
could see its eyes roll. I thought I saw the feathers stiffen on
its breast. Then, as the sweat rolled down my face, both the
horrible things vanished as suddenly as they had appeared. They
were gone for more than a minute, then they appeared again, only
to disappear a second time. They were exactly alike at each
appearance. Soon my horror left me, for I saw that the things
disappeared at regular intervals. I found that I could time each
reappearance by counting ninety slowly from the instant the
things vanished. That calmed me. "I believe they're only
clock-work," I said to myself. A moment later I saw Mr. Jermyn's
head in sharp outline against the brightness of the owl. He
seemed to be fixing something with his hand. It made me burst