Disobeying my warning he straightened, glared at me.

And disquieting as the spectacle had been before, fully understanding it as I did, I could not restrain my shudder at the utter weirdness of that skull which was his head thrusting itself toward me.
The skeleton that was Ventnor turned to me; was arrested by the sight of the flitting pair ahead.

I saw the fleshless jaws clamp, then opened to speak.
Abruptly, upon the skeletons in front the flesh dropped back.

Girl and woman stood there once again robed in beauty.
So swift was that transition from the grisly unreal to the normal that even to my unsuperstitious mind it smacked of necromancy.

The next instant the three of us stood looking at each other, clothed once more in the flesh, and the pony no longer the steed of death, but our shaggy, patient little companion.
The light had changed; the high violet had gone from it, and it was shot with yellow gleamings like fugitive sunbeams.