When my excitement had calmed, I said to myself, “This is a dream—­simply a hideous dream.”  And so I lay thinking it over until I convinced myself that it was a dream, and then a comforting laugh relaxed my lips and I was happy again.  I got up and struck a light; and when I found that the locks and bolts were just as I had left them, another soothing laugh welled in my heart and rippled from my lips.  I took my pipe and lit it, and was just sitting down before the fire, when-down went the pipe out of my nerveless fingers, the blood forsook my cheeks, and my placid breathing was cut short with a gasp!  In the ashes on the hearth, side by side with my own bare footprint, was another, so vast that in comparison mine was but an infant’s!  Then I had had a visitor, and the elephant tread was explained.

I put out the light and returned to bed, palsied with fear.  I lay a long time, peering into the darkness, and listening.—­Then I heard a grating noise overhead, like the dragging of a heavy body across the floor; then the throwing down of the body, and the shaking of my windows in response to the concussion.  In distant parts of the building I heard the muffled slamming of doors.  I heard, at intervals, stealthy footsteps creeping in and out among the corridors, and up and down the stairs.  Sometimes these noises approached my door, hesitated, and went away again.  I heard the clanking of chains faintly, in remote passages, and listened while the clanking grew nearer—­while it wearily climbed the stairways, marking each move by the loose surplus of chain that fell with an accented rattle upon each succeeding step as the goblin that bore it advanced.  I heard muttered sentences; half-uttered screams that seemed smothered violently; and the swish of invisible garments, the rush of invisible wings.  Then I became conscious that my chamber was invaded—­that I was not alone.  I heard sighs and breathings about my bed, and mysterious whisperings.  Three little spheres of soft phosphorescent light appeared on the ceiling directly over my head, clung and glowed there a moment, and then dropped —­two of them upon my face and one upon the pillow.  They, spattered, liquidly, and felt warm.  Intuition told me they had—­turned to gouts of blood as they fell—­I needed no light to satisfy myself of that.  Then I saw pallid faces, dimly luminous, and white uplifted hands, floating bodiless in the air—­floating a moment and then disappearing.  The whispering ceased, and the voices and the sounds, anal a solemn stillness followed.  I waited and listened.  I felt that I must have light or die.  I was weak with fear.  I slowly raised myself toward a sitting posture, and my face came in contact with a clammy hand!  All strength went from me apparently, and I fell back like a stricken invalid.  Then I heard the rustle of a garment it seemed to pass to the door and go out.