But the
matter had even a more serious phase than this. It was about this time
that Lie disappeared for a period of three months from his friends, and
even his parents, and when again he emerged into the daylight, he could
give no account of himself. He had simply sauntered about, moping and
dreaming. He had been Hyde. The cold shudders which lurked in his blood
from the long, legend-haunted arctic night could break into open terror
on unforeseen occasions. Grown man though he was, he was afraid of being
alone in the dark--a peculiarity which once got him into a comical
predicament.
It was his habit when travelling to place his big top-boots at night
within easy reach, so that he might use them as weapons against any
ghost or suspicious-looking object that might be stirring in the gloom.
One evening when he had gone to bed at a country inn, he was aroused
from his sleep and saw indistinctly a white phenomenon fluttering to and
fro along the opposite wall. Instantly he grabs a boot and hurls it with
ferocious force at the goblin.
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