I lay back silent, motionless, listening, not daring to move a muscle because of that hideous reptile closely guarding me.
I suppose ten minutes must have passed—ten of the most awful minutes of terror and disgust I have ever experienced in all my life—then a sound broke the dead stillness of the night.
I heard a woman’s loud, piercing scream—a scream of sudden horror.
Sylvia’s voice! It seemed to emanate from the room beyond!
Again it was repeated. I heard her shriek distinctly—
“Ah! No, spare me! Not that—not that!”
Only a wall divided us, yet I was powerless, held there face to face with a terrible and revolting death, unable to save her, unable to raise my hand in self-defence.
She shrieked again, in an agony of terror.
I lay there breathless, petrified by horror.