“I thanked her and said ‘no,’ at which she at once departed with a look of still determination upon her countenance that I found it hard to explain.

Left alone in that large, bare and dimly lighted room, with the wind shrieking in the chimney and the powerful limbs of some huge tree beating against the walls without, with a heavy thud inexpressibly mournful, I found to my surprise and something like dismay, that the sleepiness which had hitherto oppressed me, had in some unaccountable way entirely fled.  In vain I contemplated the bed, comfortable enough now in its appearance that the stifling curtains were withdrawn; no temptation to invade it came to arouse me from the chair into which I had thrown myself.  It was as if I felt myself under the spell of some invisible influence that like the eye of a basilisk, held me enchained.  I remember turning my head towards a certain quarter of the wall as if I half expected to encounter there the bewildering glance of a serpent.  Yet far from being apprehensive of any danger, I only wondered over the weakness of mind that made such fancies possible.

“An extra loud swirl of the foliage without, accompanied by a quick vibration of the house, aroused me at last.  If I was to lose the sense of this furious storm careering over my head, I must court sleep at once.  Rising, I drew off my coat, unloosened my vest and was about to throw it off, when I bethought me of a certain wallet it contained.  Going to the door in some unconscious impulse of precaution I suppose, I locked myself in, and then drawing out my wallet, took from it a roll of bills which I put into a small side pocket, returning the wallet to its old place.

“Why I did this I can scarcely say.  As I have before intimated, I was under no special apprehension.  I was at that time anything but a suspicious man, and the manner and appearance of the men below struck me as unpleasantly disagreeable but nothing more.  But I not only did what I have related, but allowed the lamp to remain lighted, lying down finally in my clothes; an almost unprecedented act on my part, warranted however as I said to myself, by the fury of the gale which at that time seemed as if it would tumble the roof over our heads.

“How long I lay listening to the creakings and groanings of the rickety old house, I cannot say, nor how long I remained in the doze which finally seized me as I became accustomed to the sounds around and over me.  Enough that before the storm had passed its height, I awoke as if at the touch of a hand, and leaping with a bound out of the bed, beheld to my incredible amazement, the alert, nervous form of Luttra standing before me.  She had my coat in her hand, and it was her touch that had evidently awakened me.

“‘I want you to put this on,’ said she in a low thrilling tone totally new in my experience, ’and come with me.  The house is unsafe for you to remain in.  Hear how it cracks and trembles.  Another blast like that and we shall be roofless.’