What put a stop to all this was a sudden fright. Shasta discovered that someone or somebody was walking beside him. It was pitch dark and he could see nothing. And the Thing （or Person） was going so quietly that he could hardly hear any footfalls. What he could hear was breathing. His invisible companion seemed to breathe on a very large scale， and Shasta got the impression that it was a very large creature. And he had come to notice this breathing so gradually that he had really no idea how long it had been there. It was a horrible shock.
It darted into his mind that he had heard long ago that there were giants in these Northern countries. He bit his lip in terror. But now that he really had something to cry about， he stopped crying.
The Thing （unless it was a Person） went on beside him so very quietly that Shasta began to hope he had only imagined it. But just as he was becoming quite sure of it， there suddenly came a deep， rich sigh out of the darkness beside him. That couldn‘t be imagination！ Anyway， he had felt the hot breath of that sigh on his chilly left hand.