Did I do this not to see the approaching danger and inevitable fate which was fast overtaking me? I do not know; I only remember the act, but not the thought that prompted it.
Anyway willing or not willing, I saw everything.
Close by, some big phosphorescent mushrooms illuminated the darkness with their faint, ghastly gleams of light.
The tumult, the row, the trampling always seemed to get louder and nearer. It was like the advance of an endless host of demons and evil spirits.
Terrible crashes, furious roars, wild howls, and formidable feline cries began to reach my ear distinctly. I could have sworn that all the fiercest inhabitants of the forest had agreed to meet near me. Was this conviction the effect of the terror which had taken possession of me or was it a horrible fact?
Two burning orbs flashed through the night and an unearthly yell made my poor body start once more, though stiffened as it was by horror.
A tiger was here, perhaps 50, perhaps 20 yards from me!
I feebly endeavoured again to hide my face; it would be preferable for death to come upon me suddenly than to count the instants of its coming.
I backed myself closer under the rock, clinging to it with my left hand, whose nerves, muscles and nails had turned into steel under the supremacy of terror.
A few minutes of cruel, breathless suspense....