A creature with bat-like wings flapped with a monstrous ungainliness between the outer posts of the verandah.

From across the compound an owl called on a weird note of defiance.

And in the dim waste of distance beyond she heard the piercing cry of a jackal.

But close at hand, so far as the rays of the lamp penetrated, she could discern nothing.
Stay! What was that?
A bar of light from another lamp lay across the verandah, stretching out into the darkness.

It came from the room next to the one in which she stood.