Then by her sudden gleam I knew she had thrown off her garments, and stood white in the dazed moon.

One moment she stood--and fell forward.
A streak of white shot away in a swift-drawn line.

The same instant the moon recovered herself, shining out with a full flash, and I saw that the streak was a long-bodied thing, rushing in great, low-curved bounds over the grass.

Dark spots seemed to run like a stream adown its back, as if it had been fleeting along under the edge of a wood, and catching the shadows of the leaves.
"God of mercy!" I cried, "is the terrible creature speeding to the night-infolded city ?" and I seemed to hear from afar the sudden burst and spread of outcrying terror, as the pale savage bounded from house to house, rending and slaying.
While I gazed after it fear-stricken, past me from behind, like a swift, all but noiseless arrow, shot a second large creature, pure white.

Its path was straight for the spot where the lady had fallen, and, as I thought, lay.