midnight
One sees , vaguely , a dark figure crouching along the lower fringe of the fog . That , too , disappears . For a moment the silence seems intensified . Then , suddenly , it is crossed by a low whir -- a strange sound in the midnight . Then a shriek whose like is never heard save when a soul is wrenched without warning in frightfullest torture from its body . Then another and another and another in rapid succession , each fainter and more horrible in suggestion than the last . With them has mingled the single frenzied cry of a man .