Page:Twelve Stories and a Dream (1903).djvu/389

Rh man who had killed me, seemed to recede. It swept out of existence'

'Euston!' clamoured the voices outside; 'Euston!'

The carriage door opened admitting a flood of sound, and a porter stood regarding us. The sounds of doors slamming, and the hoof-clatter of cab-horses, and behind these things the featureless remote roar of the London cobble-stones, came to my ears. A truckload of lighted lamps blazed along the platform.

'A darkness, a flood of darkness that opened and spread and blotted out all things.'

'Any luggage, sir?' said the porter.

'And that was the end?' I asked.

He seemed to hesitate. Then, almost inaudibly, he answered, No.

'You mean?'

'I couldn't get to her. She was there on the other side of the temple And then'

'Yes,' I insisted. 'Yes?'

'Nightmares,' he cried; 'nightmares indeed! My God! Great birds that fought and tore.'