His ugly soul was disrupted with a desire to possess her, and Aldous knew that when roused by passion he was more like a devil-fish than a man--a creeping, slimy, night-seeking creature who had not only the power of the underworld back of him, but wealth as well.

He did not think of him as a man as he stood listening, but as a beast.

He was ready to shoot.

But he saw nothing.

He heard no sound that could have been made by a stumbling foot or a moving body.