forget that night! He sat there, fat and oily, two big rings on his
stubby fingers--a monstrous toad in human form--and he chuckled and
laughed at me in his joy, as though I were a mountebank playing amusing
tricks for him--and there my soul was bleeding itself out before his
eyes! And his son came in, fat and oily and accursed like his father,
and HE laughed at me. I didn't know that such hatred could exist in the
world, or that vengeance could bring such hellish joy. I could still
hear their gloating laughter when I stumbled out into the night. It
haunted me. I heard it in the trees. It came in the wind. My brain was
filled with it--and suddenly I turned back, and I went into that house
again without knocking, and I faced the two of them alone once more in
that room. And this time, Conniston, I went back to get justice--or to
kill. Thus far it was premeditated, but I went with my naked hands.
There was a key in the door, and I locked it. Then I made my demand. I
wasted no words--"

Keith rose from the table and began to pace back and forth. The wind
had died again. They could hear the yapping of the foxes and the low
thunder of the ice.

"The son began it," said Keith. "He sprang at me. I struck him. We
grappled, and then the beast himself leaped at me with some sort of
weapon in his hand. I couldn't see what it was, but it was heavy. The
first blow almost broke my shoulder. In the scuffle I wrenched it from
his hand, and then I found it was a long, rectangular bar of copper
made for a paper-weight. In that same instant I saw the son snatch up a
similar object from the table, and in the act he smashed the table
light. In darkness we fought. I did not feel that I was fighting men.
They were monsters and gave me the horrible sensation of being in
darkness with crawling serpents. Yes, I struck hard. And the son was