rise from a kettle. But a fog which springs from the paved streets,
that rolls between solid house-fronts, that forces cabs to move at
half speed, that drowns policemen and extinguishes the electric lights
of the music hall, that to me is incomprehensible. It is as out of
place as a tidal wave on Broadway.

"As I felt my way along the wall, I encountered other men who were
coming from the opposite direction, and each time when we hailed each
other I stepped away from the wall to make room for them to pass. But
the third time I did this, when I reached out my hand, the wall had
disappeared, and the further I moved to find it the further I seemed
to be sinking into space. I had the unpleasant conviction that at any
moment I might step over a precipice. Since I had set out I had heard
no traffic in the street, and now, although I listened some minutes, I
could only distinguish the occasional footfalls of pedestrians.
Several times I called aloud, and once a jocular gentleman answered
me, but only to ask me where I thought he was, and then even he was
swallowed up in the silence. Just above me I could make out a jet of
gas which I guessed came from a street lamp, and I moved over to that,
and, while I tried to recover my bearings, kept my hand on the iron
post. Except for this flicker of gas, no larger than the tip of my
finger, I could distinguish nothing about me. For the rest, the mist
hung between me and the world like a damp and heavy blanket.

"I could hear voices, but I could not tell from whence they came, and
the scrape of a foot moving cautiously, or a muffled cry as some one
stumbled, were the only sounds that reached me.

"I decided that until some one took me in tow I had best remain where
I was, and it must have been for ten minutes that I waited by the