footsteps hastily receding.

The movement of his head involved a perception of
extreme physical weakness. He supposed he was in
bed in the hotel at the place in the valley -- but he
could not recall that white edge. He must have slept.
He remembered now that he had wanted to sleep. He
recalled the cliff and waterfall again, and then
recollected something about talking to a passer-by.

How long had he slept? What was that sound of
pattering feet? And that rise and fall, like the
murmur of breakers on pebbles? He put out a languid
hand to reach his watch from the chair whereon it
was his habit to place it, and touched some smooth
hard surface like glass. This was so unexpected that
it startled him extremely. Quite suddenly he rolled
over, stared for a moment, and struggled into a sitting
position. The effort was unexpectedly difficult, and
it left him giddy and weak -- and amazed.

He rubbed his eyes. The riddle of his surroundings
was confusing but his mind was quite clear -- evidently
his sleep had benefited him. He was not in a
bed at all as he understood the word, but lying naked
on a very soft and yielding mattress, in a trough of
dark glass. The mattress was partly transparent, a
fact he observed with a strange sense of insecurity, and
below it was a mirror reflecting him greyly. About
his arm -- and he saw with a shock that his skin was