“Like all the other visitors, however, she never passed by the clock without pausing to look at it.

“‘I can’t help it,’ she whispered. ‘It’s its size! it’s stupendous! It quite fills the house! there is hardly any room to breathe! It’s a monstrous clock! It fascinates me! It’s more than a clock. You must GET RID of it.’

“Avice was whimsical. What, get rid of the Ebony Clock! Impossible—the idea tickled me. I laughed.

“I laughed then—but not later, when she had gone and all was quiet.

“From the hall below I heard it strike one, two, three—twelve!

“Its pendulum swung to and fro with a dull and ponderous clang, and the sound that came from its brazen lungs, though loud and deep and musical, was far too thrilling.

“Against my will, it made me think, and my thoughts were none too pleasant.

“Hardly had its vibrations ceased before I sat up in bed and listened! At first I attributed the noise I had heard to the pulsations of my heart—bump! bump! bump!—but as I crouched there, waiting, I was soon undeceived; the sounds not only increased in intensity, but drew nearer—bump![31] bump! bump!—just as if something huge and massive was moving across the hall floor and ascending the stairs!

“An icy fear stole all over me! What!—what in Heaven’s name could it be?

“I glanced in terror at the door—it was locked—locked and BOLTED—the village was much frequented by tramps, and I always went to bed prepared.

“But this noise—this series of heavy, mechanical boom