y walks with
Penton are all right, are harmless."

"Yes, I know they are ... but you mustn't rebuke me, either."

"I wasn't rebuking either you or Johnnie ... it isn't that I'm thinking
of at all ... but everything has been so uncanny here to-night ... I
could not sleep ... every little rustle of curtains, every creak or
motion in the whole house vibrated through me ... something's going to
happen to someone."

"You're only upset because Penton's in jail," I explained.

"No, that's not it ... that's nothing compared to this feeling ... this
premonition--"

"Come on, let's make some coffee ... in the percolator."

"You girls sit down and I'll make it. I've been a cook several times in
my career."

Someone was knocking about in the dark, upstairs. We heard a match
struck....

"There, we've waked Ruth, too."

"What's the matter down there?" Ruth was calling.

"Come on down and join us, Ruth,--we're having a cup of coffee a-piece."

"It's only two o'clock ... what's everybody doing up so early? Has
Penton come back?"

"No ... but do come down and join us," I replied.

* * * * *

"I tell you, I thought it was burglars at first, and I was going to the
drawer in Penton's room and get out his six-shooter."

"Does Penton keep a gun?" I asked.

"Yes ... it's the one he bought to shoot the mongrel dog with."

* * * * *

We ate some cold roast beef sandwiches and drank our coffee.

Hildreth stayed in the big house, not going down the path with me.

I went silently to my tent. It was blowing a little now. The moon was
surging along behind little, grey, running clouds. It would rain before
daylight. A haunted shiver swept through my back as I stole along the
path. I repeated poetry rapidly aloud to crowd out uncanny imaginings. I
had a silly, sick impulse to run back to the big house and sleep on the
couch in the library.

But I forced myself on. "If you're ever going to be a man, you'd better
begin now," I muttered to myself, as if talking to another person.

In my tent ... I lit the lamp. I removed all hanging objects because
their lurching shadows sent shivers of apprehension through me....

"That damned coffee--wish I hadn't drunk it."

* * * * *

The wind and rain came up like a phantom army. It sang in the trees, it
drummed musically on my tent. It comforted me.

The floodgates of my mind, my inspiration