This is Chapter 14 of the Nightland. On the way they will meet the Things which study man and inch ever closer to the last fortress of mankind. They are beings from another world who have made this world their own and have dispossessed humanity.
This is an online edition of The Nightland, by William Hope Hodgson. It is available free for reading at Book-Lover.com. Click on the "next" link at the top of the page to begin reading the chapter.