I feared for my dear Madam Mina when these weird figures drew near and circled round.

I looked at her, but she sat calm, and smiled at me.

When I would have stepped to the fire to replenish it, she caught me and held me back, and whispered, like a voice that one hears in a dream, so low it was.
"No! No! Do not go without.

Here you are safe!" I turned to her, and looking in her eyes said, "But you?
It is for you that I fear!" Whereat she laughed, a laugh low and unreal, and said, "Fear for me! Why fear for me?
None safer in all the world from them than I am," and as I wondered at the meaning of her words, a puff of wind made the flame leap up, and I see the red scar on her forehead.

Then, alas! I knew.