Someone or something, evil and watchful, seemed to be very near again.
Stuart turned and found himself gazing fearfully in the direction of
the open study door. He became persuaded anew that someone was hiding
there, and snatching up an ash stick which lay upon a chair in the
hall he returned to the door. One step into the room he took and
paused--palsied with a sudden fear which exceeded anything he had
known.

A white casement curtain was drawn across the French windows ... and
outlined upon this moon-bright screen he saw a tall figure. It was
that of a _cowled man_!

Such an apparition would have been sufficiently alarming had the cowl
been that of a monk, but the outline of this phantom being suggested
that of one of the Misericordia brethren or the costume worn of old
by the familiars of the Inquisition!

His heart leapt wildly, and seemed to grow still. He sought to cry out
in his terror, but only emitted a dry gasping sound.

The psychology of panic is obscure and has been but imperfectly
explored. The presence of the terrible cowled figure afforded a
confirmation of Stuart's theory that he was the victim of a species
of waking nightmare.

Even as he looked, the shadow of the cowled man moved--and was gone.

Stuart ran across the room, jerked open the curtains and stared out
across the moon-bathed lawn, its prospect terminated by high privet