28. tense groan. "That's no animal" I said, and Bill nodded. Somehow I was less afraid, for the wild hush of an unearthly whisper had transformed into an animate and distinct sound, It wasn't modified by the distance and air currents as It had been so far below. It was clear and. penetrating. It might have been the call of a primitive being echoing from the dim past. The call that had not, as yet been cultured to the refinement of speech. "It's up on top," Bill whispered. He sounded calm and collected. Perhaps a person can only become so frightened and then nothing matters. I don't know why, but it didn't occur to us to retreat o Bill cocked the lever of the rifle, and I shuddered. I didn't want him to use it, under any condition. I felt as though a rifle shot on the still of the evening air would shatter the universe. By circling and climbing, we reached the level of the cliff. As we looked onto its stage, we saw the one spectacle in my life that I know will never be surpassed In my estimation. It is difficult conceive the behavior, the degree of distortion, to which the human mind can mutilate the common processes of thought. An obsession, a misconception, can never suffice as an explanation or motive of a distorted and twisted mind. I'd have been no less terrified, had I beheld a prehistoric monster, or an apparation of the supernatural; for within those few moments I was the ferocity of the human animal. Hank, the insane hermit, was hovering over the remains of a sheep. He would issue a distressed cry, sometimes soft, sometimes coarse and inhuman, and with his bloody hands, tear at the limbs and flesh of the animal. His face, In the moonlight, was a dead, distorted mask. We fled home, so fast, I hardly remember running. The memory of a demented human, cruelly tearing the flesh of a dead animal was constant. Neither of us slept that night, and the next morning, fearing the danger of our lives, told Bill's father. He went to the site of the incident and observed the proof of the tale. The woods here and there with white, and scattered animal bones. Bill's father immediately notified the state asylum.