Then Sir Robert, recovering himself, asked: "Did you notice anything unusual just now, Haswell ?" "Yes," whispered his partner.

"I thought that hideous African thing which Vernon brought here, came sliding across the floor and stared into my face with its glittering eyes, and in the eyes----" "Well, what was in the eyes ?" "I can't remember.

It was a kind of picture and the meaning of it was Sudden Death--oh Lord! Sudden Death.

Tell me it was a fancy bred of that ill-omened talk of yours ?" "I can't tell you anything of the sort," answered Aylward in a hollow voice, "for I saw something also." "What ?" asked his partner.
"Death that wasn't sudden, and other things." Again the silence fell till it was broken by Aylward.
"Come," he said, "we have been over-working--too much strain, and now the reaction.

Keep this rubbish to yourself, or they will lock you up in an asylum." "Certainly, Aylward, certainly.