“Very well, Mr. Baxter, I will take you at your word. … Have you ever heard the phrase, ‘The Watcher on the Threshold’?”
Laurie shook his head.
“No,” he said. “At least I don’t think so.”
“Well,” said the medium quietly, “that is what we call the Fear you spoke of. … No; don’t interrupt. I’ll tell you all we know. It’s not very much.”
He paused again, stretched his hand for the matches, and took one out. Laurie watched him as if fascinated by the action.
Outside roared Oxford Street in one long rolling sound as of the sea; but within here was that quiet retired silence which the boy had noticed before in the same company. Was that fancy, too, he wondered? …
The medium lit his pipe and leaned back.
“I’ll tell you all we know,” he said again quietly. “It’s not very much. Really the phrase I used just now sums it up pretty well. We who have tried to get beyond this world of sense have become aware of certain facts of which the world generally knows nothing at all. One of these facts is that the door between this life and the other is guarded by a certain being of whom we know really nothing at all, except that his presence causes the most appalling fear in those who experience it.