Sax Rohmer

“ Inexplicable things were happening around him; and all could not be mad!
"I'm getting morbid again," he told himself; "the tricks of our damnable Ferrara are getting on my nerves. Just what he desires and intends!"
This latter reflection spurred him to new activity; and, pocketing the revolver, he switched off the light in the study and looked out of the window.
Glancing across the court, he thought that he saw a man standing below, peering upward. With his hands resting upon the window ledge, Cairn looked long and steadily. ”

“ Transfixed he sat, his eyes fastened upon the ring of dull metal, bearing a green stone inscribed with a complex figure vaguely resembling a spider, which adorned the index finger.
A faint perfume stole to his nostrils—that of the secret incense; and the ring was the ring of the Witch-Queen!
In this incredible moment he relaxed that iron control of his mind, which, alone, had saved him before. Even as he realised it, and strove to recover himself, he knew that it was too late; he knew that he was lost!
*⁠*⁠*⁠*⁠*
Gloom ... blackness, unrelieved by any speck of light ”

“ There he paused in some surprise; there was no one visible by the tree and the whole court was quite deserted.
"Must have slipped off through the archway," he concluded; and, walking back, he remounted the stair and entered his chambers again.
Feeling a renewed curiosity regarding the silken rope which had so strangely come into his possession, he sat down at the table, and mastering his distaste for the thing, took it in his hands and examined it closely by the light of the lamp. ”

“ Remember, he is unacquainted with your chambers and he requires a focus for his damnable forces! He knows well that you will have the thing somewhere near to you, and probably he knows something of its awful history! You are in danger! Keep a fast hold upon yourself. ”