Charles E. Van Loan

“ The tone of the voice, more than the words, drove Gilmore's hand toward his pillow.
"Aye!" said Buckshot John. "Look for your gun if you want to. I got it here!"
The figure on the side of the bed made a sudden gesture, and there was a flash of dull metal in the half light.
The Great Gilmore was no coward, but the cold shudders were fluttering up and down his spine. It is a sensation which may come to any one at two o'clock in the morning. It cost him a great effort to find his greatest asset—his tongue. ”

“ Little by little, consciousness began to steal back to the man in the bed.
In that shadowy border-land between dreaming and waking where there are neither realities nor unrealities, there came to Gilmore an undefined sense of discomfort. ”

“ The door was locked and barricaded; the window was secure. Manifestly, it was outside of the possibilities that something should have crept into the room; and yet reasoning did not remove the strange sense of physical oppression. ”