“For a moment I was only aware of a distant pool of moonlight—that is, an opening in the thick growth many yards from where we stood, where the water sparkled with clear radiance. Then I heard the sound of lapping. And Goblin’s left hand tightened on my arm, and he made the symbol to me with his right index finger that I should be very quiet.

“Again he pointed to this distant spot of visibility, and into it glided a pirogue apparently helmed by one man. And quite distinctly I made out the figure of that man.

“He wore a jacket and trousers, perhaps jeans for all I could see, and as I watched with Goblin he lifted up a human body from the pirogue and slipped it into the water slowly with hardly a splash!

“I was confounded. Goblin hurt my shoulder he squeezed it so tight.

“The distant figure now appeared to do the same thing again. With inconceivable dexterity and strength he lifted another body and dropped it down into the muck.

“I stood stock-still. I was horrified. The thought of danger to myself didn’t even occur to me. What filled my mind was the bitter sense that two dead bodies had just been fed to the swamp’s lethal darkness, and no one, no one, would believe me when I returned home with this tale.

“Only gradually did I realize that the figure was now motionless and in all probability facing me, and that he looked on steadily and that Goblin and I were partially illuminated for the figure by the candles in the house.

“Across the black water there came a sound of laughter. It was low, simmering, as the voices of my visions had been simmering, but it was real, this laughter, it wasn’t spectral. It came from the figure.

“And as I watched, as Goblin and I watched together, the figure guided his pirogue into the blackness and was gone.

“For some long agonizing moments Goblin and I stood together, and it was more than a comfort to feel Goblin’s left arm around me, and to rest my weight against him in an intimacy I would never have shown with a human being.

“But I knew he couldn’t keep up the solid shape for very long. I also knew that he could hear this individual, this character, who had just dumped the two bodies. Goblin would know when it was safe to leave.

“For the proverbial eternity we remained there, motionless and cautious, and then Goblin told me telepathically that we should escape the island as best we could.

“ ‘And what if I get lost, hopelessly lost?’ I asked aloud in a whisper.

“ ‘I’ll lead you,’ Goblin answered. And then he disappeared. Within a second the candles in the house were extinguished, and my familiar was pushing at me and tugging me to make me go to the pirogue right now.