if they should want me for anything. And so it was, too, that at
last I found myself nodding with sleep, and started to go upstairs to
bed.

Call me superstitious if you like, but I know well enough that some of
us humans can feel the whisper of evil and terror before it reaches us.
It spoke to me on those dark back stairs with the moonlight shining on
the wall at the top, and I was brought up sharp and wide awake, when the
air rang with it as if it was a bell.

"You're half asleep, you old fool," I said, feeling the sweat start out
on my forehead, and I repeated it to myself when I was in my room and
turning down the bedclothes.

CHAPTER III

A VISITOR AT NIGHT

A nice breeze was blowing in from the meadows, cooling the hot night,
and finally, when I was laughing at my nervousness, I went to the window
and leaned on the sill. It was a very peaceful scene, I can tell you,
with that long stretch of grass and daisies and the water, and the
light, carried through the factory yard up the river, bobbing along as
the watchman passed one window after another. All but the apple trees!
They seemed as horrible as ever, and a dozen times I thought I saw men
without heads, or with long arms like apes, creeping and skulking from
one shadow to another. At last I felt my eyes sore with staring at them,
and I turned away.

Just then I heard the knocking at the back door. It was soft and careful
at first and then a little louder.

"Some one from up the street to ask me questions," said I, feeling my
way down the stairs, but then I caught the sound of something that I
thought was the mewing of a cat. If I had had any sense I would have
called to the Judge before I slid the bolt and opened the door.

The thing I saw was a little bundle of white clothing. At first it
looked so white it seemed to give off a light and I thought it was
hanging in the air. Then I saw two hands were holding it, and that it
was a child.

"I want to see the Judge," said a thick, evil voice. "I've got a joke
for him--the best joke he ever had played on him."

"And who are you?" I asked.

"Oh, he'll see me all well enough," said the man, with a heave of his
shoulders. "I'm John Chalmers!"

I could not speak. I stepped back and he came in. He must have heard the
voices in the study. But I can hardly say what happened. I only know
that I found myself standing behind him and that I saw hi