I think I must have fallen asleep and kept dreaming of the incident, for it seemed to be repeated endlessly, and now looking back, it is like a sort of awful nightmare.

Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in the darkness around us I could watch the driver's motions.

He went rapidly to where the blue flame arose, it must have been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place around it at all, and gathering a few stones, formed them into some device.
Once there appeared a strange optical effect.

When he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it, for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same.

This startled me, but as the effect was only momentary, I took it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness.