All in an instant he had given way, yielding in a second to the strange hallucination of that four-footed thing that sulked and snarled.

Now without a moment's stop he ran back and forth along the wall of the room, upon the palms of his hands and his toes, a ludicrous figure, like that of certain clowns one sees at the circus, contortionists walking about the sawdust, imitating some kind of enormous dog.

Still he swung his head from side to side with the motion of his shuffling gait, his eyes dull and fixed.

At long intervals he uttered a sound, half word, half cry, "Wolf--wolf!" but it was muffled, indistinct, raucous, coming more from his throat than from his lips.

It might easily have been the growl of an animal.