After a quick check of the doors and windows, he managed to gain entrance through a broken rear window.   Then, after a few seconds rest to allow his panting breath to return to something like normal, and his eyes to adjust to the darkness, he set out to make the house secure.

It took Stan more than half an hour to cover all the doors and windows with dust-laden chairs and the backs of cupboards.   But finally he was satisfied that he was as safe as it was possible to be from his pursuer.

He dusted off an armchair as best he could, and then settled down to wait for the monster to give up the chase.   It was already growing dark outside, so he decided that he would have to stay in the house until morning, before it would be safe to set off for Glen Hartwell again.

Stan had almost fallen asleep in the armchair, when he heard the sound of crackling wood.   ‘Fire!’ he thought.   He sat up straight, for a moment thinking that he was at the Hart sheep station.   But then, remembering where he was and why, the crackling took on a far more ominous meaning.

He sat listening for a moment, before determining that the crackling was emanating from the wall to his right.   He went across to listen with an ear against the wall, feeling round the wood panelling with his hands, until locating a “hot spot” where the wood was warm to the touch.

After a few moments’ investigation, he discovered that the hot spot was confined to an area about two hundred and twenty centimetres in height, by approximately eighty centimetres in width.

By the time Stan had confirmed its dimensions, the spot had become too hot to touch, although the wall only centimetres away was still cool to the touch.

The wood panelling began to smoulder, then billow with swirls of thick, grey smoke, and then slowly burn.

Stan stood spellbound, paralysed with terror as the burning area slowly lost its rectangular shape and began to take on the rough outline of a human being.

Although unable to turn and run, Stan had started to back deeper into the darkened room by the time the flames finally broke right through the wood panelling to reveal his pursuer: a gigantic creature resembling a man, but a man who seemed to live in the heart of a small ocean of swirling flames.