Immediately afterward something
struck me and I was knocked backward. I got on to my knees and shouted
for help at the top of my voice. I heard the women screaming behind the
closed door of the bedroom and was dully aware that the door was being
smashed from the inside, and directly afterward I knew that Beaumont was
struggling with some hideous thing near to me. For an instant I held
back, stupidly, paralyzed with funk and then, blindly and in a sort of
rigid chill of goose flesh I went to help him, shouting his name. I can
tell you, I was nearly sick with the naked fear I had on me. There came a
little, choking scream out of the darkness, and at that I jumped forward
into the dark. I gripped a vast, furry ear. Then something struck me
another great blow knocking me sick. I hit back, weak and blind and
gripped with my other hand at the incredible thing. Abruptly I was dimly
aware of a tremendous crash behind me and a great burst of light. There
were other lights in the passage and a noise of feet and shouting. My
hand-grips were torn from the thing they held; I shut my eyes stupidly
and heard a loud yell above me and then a heavy blow, like a butcher
chopping meat and then something fell upon me. "I was helped to my knees by the Captain and the butler. On the floor lay
an enormous horse-head out of which protruded a man's trunk and legs. On
the wrists were fixed great hoofs. It was the monster. The Captain cut
something with the sword that he held in his hand and stooped and lifted
off the mask, for that is what it was. I saw the face then of the man who
had worn it. It was Parsket. He had a bad wound across the forehead where
the Captain's sword had bit through the mask. I looked bewilderedly from
him to Beaumont, who was sitting up, leaning against the wall of the
corridor. Then I stared at Parsket again. "'By Jove!' I said at last, and then I was quiet for I was so ashamed for
the man. You can understand, can't you? And he was opening his eyes. And
you know, I had grown so to like him. "And then, you know, just as Parsket was getting back his wits and
looking from one to the other of us and beginning to remember, there
happened a strange and incredible thing. For from the end of the
corridor there sounded suddenly, the clumping of a great hoof. I looked
that way and then instantly at Parsket and saw a horrible fear in his
face and eyes. He wrenched himself 'round, weakly, and stared in mad
terror up the corridor to where the sound had been, and the rest of us
stared, in a frozen group. I remember vaguely half sobs and whispers
from Miss Hisgins's bedroom, all the while that I stared frightenedly up
the corridor. "The silence lasted several seconds and then, abruptly there came again
the clumping of the great hoof, away at the end of the corridor. And
immediately afterward the clungk, clunk--clungk, clunk of mighty hoofs
coming down the passage toward us. "Even then, you know, most of us thought it was some mechanism of
Parsket's still at work and we were in the queerest mixture of fright and
doubt. I think everyone looked at Parsket. And suddenly the Captain
shouted out:

"'Stop this damned fooling at once. Haven't you done enough?' "For my part, I was now frightened for I had a _sense_ that there was
something horrible and wrong. And then Parsket managed to gasp out:

"'It's not me! My God! It's not me! My God! It's not me.' "And then, you know, it seemed to come home to everyone in an instant
that there was really some dreadful thing coming down the passage. There
was a mad rush to get away and even old Captain Hisgins gave back with
the butler and the footmen. Beaumont fainted outright, as I found
afterward, for he had been badly mauled. I just flattened back against
the wall, kneeling as I was, too stupid and dazed even to run. And almost
in the same instant the ponderous hoof falls sounded close to me and
seeming to shake the solid floor as they passed. Abruptly the great
sounds ceased and I knew in a sort of sick fashion that the thing had
halted opposite to the door of the girl's bedroom. And then I was aware
that Parsket was standing rocking in the doorway with his arms spread
across, so as to fill the doorway with his body. Parsket was
extraordinarily pale and the blood was running down his face from the
wound in his forehead; and then I noticed that he seemed to be looking at
something in the passage with a peculiar, desperate, fixed, incredibly
masterful gaze. But there was really nothing to be seen. And suddenly the
clungk, clunk--clungk, clunk recommenced and passed onward down the
passage. In the same moment Parsket pitched forward out of the doorway
on to his face. "There were shouts from the huddle of men down the passage and the two
footmen and the butler simply ran, carrying their lanterns, but the
Captain went against the side-wall with his back and put the lamp he was
carrying over his head. The dull tread of the Horse went past him, and
left him unharmed and I heard the monstrous hoof falls going away and
away through the quiet house and after that a dead silence. "Then the Captain moved and came toward us, very slow and shaky and with
an extraordinarily grey face. "I crept toward Parsket and the Captain came to help me. We turned him
over and, you know, I knew in a moment that he was dead; but you can
imagine what a feeling it sent through me. "I looked at the Captain and suddenly he said:

"'That--That--That--' and I know that he was trying to tell me that
Parsket had stood between his daughter and whatever it was that had gone
down the passage. I stood up and steadied him, though I was not very
steady myself. And suddenly his face began to work and he went down on to
his knees by Parsket and cried like some shaken child. Then the women
came out of the doorway of the bedroom and I turned away and left him to
them, whilst I over to Beaumont. "That is practically the whole story and the only thing that is left to
me is to try to explain some of the puzzling parts, here and there. "Perhaps you have seen that Parsket was in love with Miss Hisgins and
this fact is the key to a good deal that was extraordinary. He was
doubtless responsible for some portions of the 'haunting'; in fact I
think for nearly everything, but, you know, I can prove nothing and what
I have to tell you is chiefly the result of deduction. "In the first place, it is obvious that Parsket's intention was to
frighten Beaumont away and when he found that he could not do this, I
think he grew so desperate that he really intended to kill him. I hate to
say this, but the facts force me to think so. "I am quite certain that it was Parsket who broke Beaumont's arm. He knew
all the details of the so-called 'Horse Legend,' and got the idea to work
upon the old story for his own end.