The 'Thing' is afoot.

Sensations, Reflexes and Learned Associations

You are probably familiar with the phrase, afoot. In the most basic sense, it means what Sherlock Holmes meant when he sometimes said, “The game is afoot, Watson”. Why? Because Sherlock literally meant they must leave his upstairs apartment, afoot. The time for thinking was done for the moment and travel was necessary. Webster’s dictionary has both of these definitions - literally afoot and that some event is just starting or already in play. S.I. Hayakawa, the great semanticist said this about definitions.

”Definitions, contrary to popular opinion, tell us nothing about things. They only describe people's linguistic habits; that is, they tell us what noises people make under what conditions.”