Page:The Man Who Died Twice (1924).djvu/57

 And the more fearful as it forged along

To a dark and surging climax, which at length

Broke horribly into coarse and unclean laughter

That rose above a groaning of the damned;

And through it all there were those drums of death,

Which always had been haunting him from childhood.

Without a formal ending, or any sign

That there was ever to be an end, the rats

Danced madly to the long cacophony

They made, and they made faces at Fernando

The while they danced—till one of them, the leader,

Bowed mockingly, and vanished through the keyhole,

As he had come; and after him went others,