Down and down, without pausing and without sounding, came
the bed-top, and still my panic-terror seemed to bind me faster
and faster to the mattress on which I lay--down and down it sank,
till the dusty odor from the lining of the canopy came stealing
into my nostrils.
At that final moment the instinct of self-preservation startled
me out of my trance, and I moved at last. There was just room for
me to roll myself sidewise off the bed. As I dropped noiselessly
to the floor, the edge of the murderous canopy touched me on the
shoulder.
Without stopping to draw my breath, without wiping the cold sweat
from my face, I rose instantly on my knees to watch the bed-top.
I was literally spellbound by it. If I had heard footsteps behind
me, I could not have turned round; if a means of escape had been
miraculously provided for me, I could not have moved to take
advantage of it. The whole life in me was, at that moment,
concentrated in my eyes.
It descended--the whole canopy, with the fringe round it, came
down--down--close down; so close that there was not room now to
squeeze my finger between the bed-top and the bed. I felt at the
sides, and discovered that what had appeared to me from beneath
to be the ordinary light canopy of a four-post bed was in reality
a thick, broad mattress, the substance of which was concealed by
the valance and its fringe.
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