![]() Then the dog gave a long howl, and I started. With a slight feeling of nervousness, I stared into the gardens but the night hid everything. I sat upright, with a quick movement, and looked out through the opened door. Suddenly, I heard a soft noise on the path, outside in the garden-pad, pad, pad, it went, with a stealthy, curious sound. I was much engrossed in my work, and the time passed, quickly. Still, I have felt it better to have a dog about the place. I will not have him in the house-not after Pepper. It belongs to the dog I have bought, since Pepper's death. At times, the metallic rattle of a dog's chain, sounded faintly. The door, leading into the garden, was half open. Last night, I was sitting here in my study, writing. Yet, there is that in the air, which bids me fear-an intangible, cold horror. Not that I fear death-as death is understood. Somehow, I think death is not very far away. I am shaky and nervous, even now, as I write. I have a feeling, that there is more in this last affair, than in all those others. I will write it down now, and, if anything more happens, endeavor to make a note of it, at once. Last night, a thing occurred, which has filled me with an even greater terror, than did the Pit fear. Now that I am writing, let me record that I am certain, there is something horrible about to happen. There are so many things, about which I wonder. It has occurred to me, that they may have broken loose from the sun's attraction, and whirled away into space. I will not have it touched.Īt times, when I am calmer, I have wondered what became of the outer planets of the Solar System. There is still that little heap of grey ash, on my study floor. And the faces that peered out at me! God, do they, and does such a thing really exist?. Then, there is that dreadful, dark nebula (with its multitudes of red spheres) moving always within the shadow of the Dark Sun, sweeping along on its stupendous orbit, wrapped eternally in gloom. If it were not for Pepper, I should, even after the many extraordinary things that I have witnessed, be inclined to imagine that it was but a gigantic dream. That Sun-those Suns, were they indeed the great Central Suns, 'round which the whole universe, of the unknown heavens, revolves? Who shall say? And the bright globules, floating forever in the light of the Green Sun! And the Sea of Sleep on which they float! How unbelievable it all is. Sometimes, in my sleep, I dream about it, and go through, in imagination, the whole of that fearsome happening. It is many weeks, since I came back from that strange and terrible journey through space and time. Pepper is dead! Even now, at times, I seem scarcely able to realize that this is so. 144111 The House on the Borderland - Chapter XXIV: The Footsteps In The Garden William Hope Hodgson
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