A great, black shadow covered it, and rose into the air, and came
at me. I saw that it was the Hand, vast and nearly perfect in form. I
gave one crazy yell, and jumped over the Pentacle and the ring of burning
candles, and ran despairingly for the door. I fumbled idiotically and
ineffectually with the key, and all the time I stared, with a fear that
was like insanity, toward the Barriers. The hand was plunging toward me;
yet, even as it had been unable to pass into the Pentacle when the ring
was without, so, now that the ring was within, it had no power to pass
out. The monster was chained, as surely as any beast would be, were
chains riveted upon it.
"Even then, I got a flash of this knowledge; but I was too utterly shaken
with fright, to reason; and the instant I managed to get the key turned,
I sprang into the passage, and slammed the door with a crash. I locked
it, and got to my room somehow; for I was trembling so that I could
hardly stand, as you can imagine. I locked myself in, and managed to get
the candle lit; then I lay down on my bed, and kept quiet for an hour or
two, and so I got steadied.
"I got a little sleep, later; but woke when Peter brought my coffee.
When I had drunk it I felt altogether better, and took the old man along
with me whilst I had a look into the Grey Room. I opened the door, and
peeped in. The candles were still burning, wan against the daylight; and
behind them was the pale, glowing star of the Electric Pentacle.
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