“It’s h’anted!” said he, desperately.  “Missis, listen:  I ‘uz comin’ home from prayer-meetin’, ‘bout two weeks ago, walkin’ back er dis same place in de dark ob de moon.  An’ all ob a suddin I hyuh de pianner in de pahlor, ting-a-ling-a-ling! ting-a-ling-a-ling! I say, ‘Who de name er Gawd in ol’ Mis’ Scarlett’s pahlor, when dey ain’t nobody in it?’ I look thoo de haidge, an’ dey’s one weenchy light in de room, an’ whilst I’m lookin’, it goes out!  An’ de pianner, she’s a-playin’ right along!  Yessum, de pianner, she’s er tingalingin’ by ‘erself in de middle o’ de night!”

“And who was playing it, Uncle Adam?”

“Dat’s what I axin yit:  who playin’ Mis’ Scarlett’s pianner when dey wasn’t nobody in de house?”

“Why didn’t you find out?”

“Who, me?” cried the old man, with horror.  “If I could er borried a extra pahr er laigs from er yaller dawg, I’d a did it right den, so ’s I could run twict faster ‘n I done!—­Whichin’ please, ma’ams, lemme take you-all ter de hotel.”

When he saw that he couldn’t prevail upon us to do so, he left us regretfully, shaking his head.  He would come back early in the morning to do anything we might require.  But he wouldn’t stay overnight in Hynds House for any consideration.  No negro in the county would.

“Alicia,” said I, when we had had a cup of tea made over our spirit lamp, and firelight and lamplight made the place less depressing and eerie, “Alicia, that terrible old woman has played me, like an ace up her sleeve, against her neighbors and her family.  She has left me a house that needs everything done to it except to burn it down and rebuild it, and a garden that will have to be cleared out with dynamite.  And she has seen to it that I have the preconceived prejudice of all Hyndsville.”

Alicia’s pretty, soft lips closed firmly.

“Here we are and here we stay!” she said determinedly.  “Nobody’s been disinherited to make room for us.  Sophy, in all our lives we have never had a chance to make a real home.  Well, then, Hynds House is our chance, and I’d just like to see anybody take it away from us!”

“Up, Guards, and at ’em!” said I, smiling at her tone.  I am slower than she, but even more stubborn, as the English are.

“Tell your admiral that if he gets in my way I will blow his ships out of the water!” said Alicia, gallantly.

But when we went up-stairs, we took good care to lock our door, and bolt it, too.  Alicia said her prayers kneeling by the gate-legged table, snuggled into bed between the clean sheets we had brought with us, tucked a china dog under her chin, and went to sleep like the child that she was.  I said the Shepherd’s Psalm and went to sleep, too.

I was awakened suddenly, and found myself sitting up in bed, staring wildly about the strange room.  The house was breathlessly still.  My heart pounded against my ribs, the blood beat in my ears.  I was oppressed with a nameless terror, an anguished sense that something had happened, something irremediable.  The feeling was so strong that my throat closed chokingly.