The students only saw his hair turn white....
But he heard tiny pulses throb and beat,
He felt slim fingers clawing out of sight
And hearkened to the patter of tiny feet.
Then shrieking fell across the clinic floor
The students pouring from their seats. Stark dead
He must have been for he said nothing more;
His fingers twitched and once he moved his head.
They did not see that from his mouth there crept
A shaggy spider shining in the light,
That shook itself like one who having slept
Puts vainly back the shadows of the night.
Then sideways moved it, trembling as though cold,
Following where the other spider ran....
Oh, hidden away there are things that are strange and old,
And weave strange webs in the very breast of man.
Chapter XII
And the ghosts of the three blind mice sang to Gud as if their hearts would break. They sang of brave deeds, for they had been field mice and they had died upon the field of honor.
And when the song was done, Gud wept again; for now he understood why it had never rained in that place.
So he arose and stamped out the smouldering embers of the fire he had builded, and whistled for the Underdog. And when the Underdog came he devoured the ghosts of the three blind mice, the one after the other and the third which came out twice, after the one. Then the Underdog licked his chops and Gud sighed, and together they departed from that place, very sorrowful that they had come.