what might, for all the world, have been spider's legs. There was
an amazing host of them,--I felt the pressure of each separate
one. They embraced me softly, stickily, as if the creature glued
and unglued them, each time it moved.

Higher and higher! It had gained my loins. It was moving towards
the pit of my stomach. The helplessness with which I suffered its
invasion was not the least part of my agony,--it was that
helplessness which we know in dreadful dreams. I understood, quite
well, that if I did but give myself a hearty shake, the creature
would fall off; but I had not a muscle at my command.

As the creature mounted its eyes began to play the part of two
small lamps; they positively emitted rays of light. By their rays
I began to perceive faint outlines of its body. It seemed larger
than I had supposed. Either the body itself was slightly
phosphorescent, or it was of a peculiar yellow hue. It gleamed in
the darkness. What it was there was still nothing to positively
show, but the impression grew upon me that it was some member of
the spider family, some monstrous member, of the like of which I
had never heard or read. It was heavy, so heavy indeed, that I
wondered how, with so slight a pressure, it managed to retain its
hold,--that it did so by the aid of some adhesive substance at the
end of its legs I was sure,--I could feel it stick. Its weight
increased as it ascended,--and it smelt! I had been for some time
aware that it emitted an unpleasant, foetid odour; as it neared my
face it became so intense as to be unbearable.

It was at my chest. I became more and more conscious of an
uncomfortable wobbling motion, as if each time it breathed its