{"product_id":"2940013740303","title":"The Cat's Eye","description":"I am not a superstitious man. Indeed superstition, which is inseparably\u003cbr\u003ebound up with ignorance or disregard of evidence, would ill accord with\u003cbr\u003ethe silken gown of a King's Counsel. And still less am I tainted with\u003cbr\u003ethat particular form of superstition in which the fetishism of barbarous\u003cbr\u003eand primitive man is incongruously revived in a population of, at least\u003cbr\u003enominally, educated persons, by the use of charms, amulets, mascots and\u003cbr\u003ethe like.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHad it been otherwise; had I been the subject of this curious atavistic\u003cbr\u003etendency, I should surely have been led to believe that from the simple\u003cbr\u003egem whose name I have used to give a title to this chronicle, some subtle\u003cbr\u003einfluence exhaled whereby the whole course of my life was directed into\u003cbr\u003enew channels. But I do not believe anything of the kind; and therefore,\u003cbr\u003ethough it did actually happen that the appearance of the Cat's Eye was\u003cbr\u003ecoincident with a radical change in the course and manner of my life, and\u003cbr\u003eeven, as it seemed, with my very personality; and though with the Cat's\u003cbr\u003eEye the unfolding of the new life seemed constantly associated; still I\u003cbr\u003ewould have it understood that I use the name merely as a label to docket\u003cbr\u003etogether a succession of events that form a consistent and natural group.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe particular train of events with which this history deals began on a\u003cbr\u003ecertain evening near the end of the long vacation. It was a cloudy\u003cbr\u003eevening, I remember, and very dark, for it was past eight o'clock and the\u003cbr\u003edays were drawing in rapidly. I was returning across Hampstead Heath\u003cbr\u003etowards my lodgings in the village, and was crossing the broken,\u003cbr\u003egorse-covered and wooded hollow to the west of the Spaniards Road, when I\u003cbr\u003eheard the footsteps of someone running, and running swiftly, as I could\u003cbr\u003ejudge by the rapid rhythm of the footfalls and the sound of scattering\u003cbr\u003egravel. I halted to listen, noting that the rhythm of the footsteps was\u003cbr\u003eslightly irregular, like the ticking of an ill-adjusted clock; and even\u003cbr\u003eas I halted, I saw the runner. But only for a moment, and then but dimly.\u003cbr\u003eThe vague shape of a man came out of the gloom, passed swiftly across my\u003cbr\u003efield of vision, and was gone. I could not see what he was like. The dim\u003cbr\u003eshape appeared and vanished into the darkness, leaving me standing\u003cbr\u003emotionless, listening with vague suspicion to the now faint footfalls and\u003cbr\u003ewondering what I ought to do.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSuddenly the silence was rent by a piercing cry, the cry of a woman\u003cbr\u003ecalling for help. And, strangely enough, it came from the opposite\u003cbr\u003edirection to that towards which the fugitive was running. In an instant I\u003cbr\u003eturned and raced across the rugged hollow towards the spot from whence\u003cbr\u003ethe sound seemed to come, and as I scrambled up a gravelly hillock I saw,\u003cbr\u003efaintly silhouetted on the murky skyline of some rising ground ahead, the\u003cbr\u003efigures of a man and a woman struggling together; and I had just noted\u003cbr\u003ethat the man seemed to be trying to escape when I saw him deal the woman\u003cbr\u003ea blow, on which she uttered a shriek and fell, while the man, having\u003cbr\u003ewrenched himself free, darted down the farther slope and vanished into\u003cbr\u003ethe encompassing darkness.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen I reached the woman she was sitting up with her right hand pressed\u003cbr\u003eto her side, and as I approached she called out sharply:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Follow him! Follow that man! Never mind me!'\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI stood for a moment irresolute, for on the hand that was pressed to her\u003cbr\u003eside I had noticed a smear of blood. But as I hesitated, she repeated:\u003cbr\u003e'Follow him! Don't let him escape! He has just committed a dreadful\u003cbr\u003emurder!'","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47070198038768,"sku":"2940013740303","price":2.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013740303_p0.jpg?v=1763589607","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013740303","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}