Instantly, it all flashed upon me. I sprang to my feet and
rushed headlong across the floor of the barn. How I moved so
quickly in the darkness I do not know; but, even as I ran, it
flashed into my mind that I should never get at my knife in time to
cut the thing down, or else that I should find it had been taken
from me. Somehow or other—the Goddess of Dreams knows how—I climbed
up by the hay bales and swung out along the rafter. I was hanging,
of course, by my arms, and the knife was already between my teeth,
though I had no recollection of how it got there. It was open. The
mass, hanging like a side of bacon, was only a few feet in front of
me, and I could plainly see the dark line of rope that fastened it
to the beam. I then noticed for the first time that it was swinging
a
