The hours passed.

The dentist sat on the hilltop a motionless, crouching figure, inky black against the pale blur of the sky.

By and by the edge of the eastern horizon began to grow blacker and more distinct in out-line.

The dawn was coming.

Once more McTeague felt the mysterious intuition of approaching danger; an unseen hand seemed reining his head eastward; a spur was in his flanks that seemed to urge him to hurry, hurry, hurry.