noon; but so far from clearing off at noon, the storm increased in violence, and as night set in, the wind whistled in a spiteful falsetto key, and the rain lashed the old tavern as if it were a balky horse that refused to move on.  The windows rattled in the worm-eaten frames, and the doors of remote rooms, where nobody ever went, slammed to in the maddest way.  Now and then the tornado, sweeping down the side of Mount Agamenticus, bowled across the open country, and struck the ancient hostelry point-blank.

Mr. Jaffrey did not appear at supper.  I knew that he was expecting me to come to his room as usual, and I turned over in my mind a dozen plans to evade seeing him that night.  The landlord sat at the opposite side of the chimney-place, with his eye upon me.  I fancy he was aware of the effect of this storm on his other boarder; for at intervals, as the wind hurled itself against the exposed gable, threatening to burst in the windows, Mr. Sewell tipped me an atrocious wink, and displayed his gums in a way he had not done since the morning after my arrival at Greenton.  I wondered if he suspected anything about Andy.  There had been odd times during the past week when I felt convinced that the existence of Miss Mehetabel’s son was no secret to Mr. Sewell.

In deference to the gale, the landlord sat up half an hour later than was his custom.  At half-past eight he went to bed, remarking that he thought the old pile would stand till morning.

He had been absent only a few minutes when I heard a rustling at the door.  I looked up, and beheld Mr. Jaffrey standing on the threshold, with his dress in disorder, his scant hair flying, and the wildest expression on his face.

“He’s gone!” cried Mr. Jaffrey.

“Who?  Sewell?  Yes, he just went to bed.”

“No, not Tobias—­the boy!”

“What, run away?”

“No—­he is dead!  He has fallen from a step-ladder in the red chamber and broken his neck!”

Mr. Jaffrey threw up his hands with a gesture of despair, and disappeared.  I followed him through the hall, saw him go into his own apartment, and heard the bolt of the door drawn to.  Then I returned to the bar-room, and sat for an hour or two in the ruddy glow of the fire, brooding over the strange experience of the last fortnight.

On my way to bed I paused at Mr. Jaffrey’s door, and in a lull of the storm, the measured respiration within told me that the old gentleman was sleeping peacefully.

Slumber was coy with me that night.  I lay listening to the soughing of the wind, and thinking of Mr. Jaffrey’s illusion.  It had amused me at first with its grotesqueness; but now the poor little phantom was dead, I was conscious that there had been something pathetic in it all along.  Shortly after midnight the wind sunk down, coming and going fainter and fainter, floating around the eaves of the tavern with an undulating, murmurous sound, as if it were turning itself into soft wings to bear away the spirit of a little child.