ress became intense. It began to be a moot
point whether they might not be forced to pass the night there, in the
middle of Roaring Brook. By great good fortune, at this juncture came
along in his sulky Dr. Butterfield of Meriden. To him Louise appealed
for aid, and he gave her his own whip, reaching it down to her from the
bridge. Tim Linkinwater, perfectly comprehending the drift of events,
did not wait for the logic of the lash, which, nevertheless, Miss
Stackpole declared that he richly deserved, and which she would fain
have seen administered, only for the probability that his homeward pace
might be thereby perilously accelerated.

That night we all went unusually early to bed and to sleep. I remember
looking from the window after the light was out, and seeing, through a
rift in the clouds, the new moon just touching the peak of the opposite
mountain. A whippoorwill sang in the great chestnut-tree at the farther
corner of the yard; tree-toads trilled, and frogs peeped, and through
all could just be heard the rapids up the river.

We were wakened at midnight by very different sounds,--a clattering,
crushing noise, like something failing down stairs, with outcries fit to
waken the seven sleepers. You would believe it impossible that they all
proceeded from one voice; but they did, and that Rhoda's. We were wide
awake and up immediately; and as the screams ceased, we distinctly heard
some one running rapidly down the walk. As soon as we could get lights,
we found ourselves congregated in the upper front hall; and Rhoda, when
she had recovered breath to speak, told her story.

She did not know what awoke her; but she heard what sounded like
carefully raising a window, and some one stepping softly around the
house. At first she supposed it might be one of the family; but, the
sounds continuing, it came into her head to get up and see what they
were. So she came, barefooted as she was, up the back way, and was just
going down the front stairs, when a gleam of light shone on the ceiling
above her. She moved to a position whence she could look over the
balusters, and saw that the light came from a shaded lantern, carried by
a man who moved so stealthily that only the creaking of the boards
betrayed his footsteps. At the foot of the stairs he paused a moment,
looking around, apparently hesitating which way to go. He decided to
ascend; and then Rhoda, bravely determined to do battle, seized a
rocking-chair which stood near