The suburban citizen., 1901-05-11

! limited that they had lately been much
/ troubled with uamps in that neighbor-
hood, thought ii best to agree.
As soon as she was gone beyond re-
| call, however. l wished l had never
consented. The possibility Of fire for
! the first tim presented itself to my
mind, and l vividly pictured myself
! locked in there with no chance Of es-
cape and being burnt to death within
a few hundred yards Of my friends.
| However, there was no help for it
now, and I commenced to undr'ss.
Before l rad finished l was laughing
at myself for my fears
! AS | turned out the lamp l thought
l heard a slight sound. L listened, but
it was not repeated. "Only magma
lion or something outside l mur-
INJURED to myself, and getting into bed
was asleep in a very few minutes.
must have been in bed a couple Of
| hours. l should think, when l awoke
with a start and that horr!d feeling of
having been ~-Jakened by vague
something without knowing what
sat up in bed and peered across the
room. The fire had burnt SO low that
only the mere outlines Of the lurniture
were visible; whilst all rne corners
were in absolute darkness. 1 hstened
intenily for some minutes, but not
sound broke the silence except q fart
tapping, caused, l knew, by the ivy
being blown against the windOW-pane.
l Law down again and was just doing
Of when-that sound was repeated.
Yes. there was no doubt about It this
time. A peculiar scudiing ncise, and
painting sort of breathing like that OF
some large auimal-issuing, it seemed
to me, from under the bed!
4 horrible slckening rear seized me-
All the stories OF the evening before
aoodcd back on my memory. How ab-
surd my own words seemed to be now
ii should not be frightened" Not
be frightened indeed when 1 was
ouaklng so with fear that 1 could hard
" breathe! The nol,e had been gradu-
ally increasing, and suddenly some
frightful thing rushed out from under
ny bed, scufed across the room and
flung itself down in front Of the fire.
1t appeared, so far as / could make
out in the dim light, to be q shaggy
sort OF animal, rather bigger than
large dog. OF course, GUESSED at once
what it was. Some wild beast had es-
capped from n travelling menagerle and,
wandering into the grounds. had ar
rived Mt tne open door Going in, 1t
had found comfortable spot under
the bed and had gone to sleep there
Such was my theory formed in a mo-
ment OF utter terror.
lay speculating rs to whether 1t
would be possible for me to reach the
door and e@cGpe before the creature
noticed me. Then l suddenly remem-
berod that even II reached the door
In safety l should be unable 10 get out!
Horror of horrors; was obliged then
to spend the w4ole night locked in
with a wild BEAST
What / endured no words can tell.
Ny forehead and hands turned cold
and clammy, and l trembled 80 with
fear that | expected every moment the
creature would hear the bed shaking
and thus become aware Of my pFes-
ence. Half an hour. or perhaps an
hour Ut seemed ten to me Mt the time,
passed without anything occurring
and then the beast suddenly arose
and, bounding across the Intervening
space sprang on to the foot Of my
] bed. ! should have screamed II / had
: been able. Thank God, fear had de-
priyed me OF the power. Still the
J creature did not seem to have noticed
, me. for it only made a queer sort OF
clucLing noise, and then curled itsell
up. and in few minutes l heard II
! commence to snore.
All through the long, long, weary
hours Of the night 1 lay there, not dar
= ing to close my eyes for an instant
, and in mortal terror lest any minute
the brute might wake up and tear m'
T.. TO pieces. Never before OF since have
d, hours seemed to pass so slowly The
2 fire burned itself out in very shor
time. and / was left with my hoTibl,
S companion in the pitch darkness, anC
e dread and agony. / hardly dared ever
G to breathe as 1 listened 10 the deeI
a snoring Of the dreadful thing, ant
= whenever the sound grew softer my
b heart almost ceased to beat with tL'
+ appalling belief that my last hour haC
l come at last.
e How ardently l longed for dawi
e heaven only knows. l really felt a
l last that If 1t did not come soon
could not bear the strain Of this terri
g bic expectancy any longer and mus
e 90 out Of my mind. TO add to m
d misery was beginning to suffer fron