Creatures
for sport all the world over; here alone, in all the earth, in the heart
of this mountain-desert, they were in some mysterious wise messengers.
Once more the far discord showered down upon them, died as they rose,
perhaps, to a higher level, and was heard no more.
CHAPTER XX
THE COMING
Then a padding step, light, lighter than the sound of the softest
thought. It was passing near; the faint breeze blew the sound to them,
around them, behind them. Each man felt as if some creature were
stalking him, unseen. Next--it appeared by magic against the blue black
of the night--the head of a great wolf, quite black, shaggy, with
sharply pointed ears. And the eyes stared at them, green eyes with
lights that swirled as the flame jumped in the throat of the lamp. For a
long moment the horror lasted. Then the head, as it had come,
disappeared, and the light, light foot fall, faded away.
Buck Daniels had risen, now. The sound of his whisper made them start.
"I'm going up--to my room--and lock the door--for God's sake--keep--him
away!"
And so he stole soundlessly away, and then they heard the creaks which
announced his progress up the stairs.
Not Buck Daniels alone. In the deadly silence Kate rose to her feet; and
the old man, the invalid--he with the dead body and the living brain,
rose from his couch and stood as erect as a soldier on parade. The
doctor was conscious of repeating to himself, hurriedly, a formula
something like this: "The thing which is coming is human; it cannot be
more than human; as long as it is human it is nothing to fear; the laws
of truth are irrevocably fixed; the laws of science will not change.
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