The Death Watches in the Wall

"I knew the sound well many a night, just at midnight when all the world slept," he writes. "It was not a groan of pain or of grief, oh no, it was the low, stifled sound that arises from thebottom of the soul when overcharged with awe." He then describes his encounter with an old man who had been lying awake in bed for hours listening to what sounded like mice crossing the floor and cricket chirping. After waiting patiently without hearing him lie down, 'i resolved to open a little, a very, very little crevice in the lantern' A beam of light shot out into the room which fell full upon the vulture's eyes