. . . Well, I can't explain it,
but through the noise of the stamping, hand-clapping, cheering, all
of a sudden and without rhyme or reason, I seemed to hear the shriek
of something distant, sinister, menacing. . . . Oh, I'm not an
imaginative fellow. Very likely it was a note set up by the wind
outside. I can't even swear that I _heard_ it; sort of took it down
my spine. Shrill it was for a moment--something between a child's
wail and the hiss of a snake--and, the next moment, not shrill at
all, but dull and heavy, like the flap of a great wing beating the
air, heavy with evil. . . . Yes, that was the sense of it--heavy with
evil. I pulled up with a shiver. The Chairman was on his feet,
waiting for the applause to cease, ready to announce the next
speaker. The little steward touched him by the arm; he wheeled about
and shook my hand effusively as I was introduced. "Delighted!
Flattered!" he said, and shook me by the hand again. The shiver went
out of me: but it took something out of me at the same time. I had a
most curious feeling of depression as I found my place.
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