His landlady had got the servant to sleep with her that night, because she was afraid to be alone.  In addition she had locked the door, and put the chest of drawers against it.  They listened and talked in whispers after they had gone to bed, but nothing occurred to alarm them.  About eleven they had ventured to put the candle out, and had both dozed off to sleep.  They woke up with a start, and sat up in bed, listening in the darkness.

Then they heard slippered feet going to and fro in Hapley’s room.  A chair was overturned, and there was a violent dab at the wall.  Then a china mantel ornament smashed upon the fender.  Suddenly the door of the room opened, and they heard him upon the landing.  They clung to one another, listening.  He seemed to be dancing upon the staircase.  Now he would go down three or four steps quickly, then up again, then hurry down into the hall.  They heard the umbrella stand go over, and the fanlight break.  Then the bolt shot and the chain rattled.  He was opening the door.

They hurried to the window.  It was a dim grey night; an almost unbroken sheet of watery cloud was sweeping across the moon, and the hedge and trees in front of the house were black against the pale roadway.  They saw Hapley, looking like a ghost in his shirt and white trousers, running to and fro in the road, and beating the air.  Now he would stop, now he would dart very rapidly at something invisible, now he would move upon it with stealthy strides.  At last he went out of sight up the road towards the down.  Then, while they argued who should go down and lock the door, he returned.  He was walking very fast, and he came straight into the house, closed the door carefully, and went quietly up to his bedroom.  Then everything was silent.

“Mrs. Colville,” said Hapley, calling down the staircase next morning, “I hope I did not alarm you last night.”

“You may well ask that!” said Mrs. Colville.

“The fact is, I am a sleep-walker, and the last two nights I have been without my sleeping mixture.  There is nothing to be alarmed about, really.  I am sorry I made such an ass of myself.  I will go over the down to Shoreham, and get some stuff to make me sleep soundly.  I ought to have done that yesterday.”

But half-way over the down, by the chalk pits, the moth came upon Hapley again.  He went on, trying to keep his mind upon chess problems, but it was no good.  The thing fluttered into his face, and he struck at it with his hat in self-defence.  Then rage, the old rage—­the rage he had so often felt against Pawkins—­came upon him again.  He went on, leaping and striking at the eddying insect.  Suddenly he trod on nothing, and fell headlong.

There was a gap in his sensations, and Hapley found himself sitting on the heap of flints in front of the opening of the chalk-pits, with a leg twisted back under him.  The strange moth was still fluttering round his head.  He struck at it with his hand, and turning his head saw two men approaching him.  One was the village doctor.  It occurred to Hapley that this was lucky.  Then it came into his mind with extraordinary vividness, that no one would ever be able to see the strange moth except himself, and that it behoved him to keep silent about it.