And then I was aware
that Parsket was standing rocking in the doorway with his arms spread
across, so as to fill the doorway with his body. Parsket was
extraordinarily pale and the blood was running down his face from the
wound in his forehead; and then I noticed that he seemed to be looking at
something in the passage with a peculiar, desperate, fixed, incredibly
masterful gaze. But there was really nothing to be seen. And suddenly the
clungk, clunk--clungk, clunk recommenced and passed onward down the
passage. In the same moment Parsket pitched forward out of the doorway
on to his face.
"There were shouts from the huddle of men down the passage and the two
footmen and the butler simply ran, carrying their lanterns, but the
Captain went against the side-wall with his back and put the lamp he was
carrying over his head. The dull tread of the Horse went past him, and
left him unharmed and I heard the monstrous hoof falls going away and
away through the quiet house and after that a dead silence.
"Then the Captain moved and came toward us, very slow and shaky and with
an extraordinarily grey face.
"I crept toward Parsket and the Captain came to help me. We turned him
over and, you know, I knew in a moment that he was dead; but you can
imagine what a feeling it sent through me.
"I looked at the Captain and suddenly he said:
"'That--That--That--' and I know that he was trying to tell me that
Parsket had stood between his daughter and whatever it was that had gone
down the passage.
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