We had fallen a few steps behind the others, but somehow they divined our purpose and stopped, too.

“You needn’t,” said Tim.  “I’ll only be a minute.”

“But I’ve something to tell you—­a secret—­and Mary——­”

He was gone.

“I’ll be back in a minute,” he called.  “Go on home.”

He was lost in the darkness, and I started after him.

“Ain’t you comin’?” cried Nanny Pulsifer.

“I must go back to Warden’s,” I answered.

“Then we’ll go with you,” said Mrs. Spiker firmly.

“Can’t you go on home?” I said testily.  “There’s no use of your troubling yourself further.”

“Does you think we’ll walk by that graveyard alone?” demanded the tavern-keeper’s wife.

“But there are no ghosts,” I argued.

[Illustration:  “But there are no ghosts,” I argued.]

“We know that,” returned Mrs. Pulsifer.  “Everybody knows that, but it’s never made any difference.”

“A graveyard is a graveyard even if there is no bodies in it,” said Mrs. Spiker, planting herself behind me so as to cut off further retreat.

Tim must have caught some echoes of the argument on the spirit world, for down the hill, through the darkness, came his call.

“Go on home, Mark—­I’ll be back in a minute.”

I believed him, and I obeyed.

XV

Tim’s minute?  God keep me from another as long!

I had my pipe in my chair by the fire, and knocking the ashes out, I went to the door, and with a hand to my ear listened for his footsteps.  Tim’s minutes are long!  Another pipe, and the clock on the mantel marked nine.  Still I smoked on.  He had had a long talk with Weston, perhaps, and had stopped downstairs for a minute with Mary.  She had told him all.  How astounded the boy must be!  Why, it would take her a half hour at least to convince him that she spoke the truth when she told him she was to marry his wreck of a brother; then when he believed it, another half hour would hardly be enough for him to welcome her into the family of Hope, and to talk over the wonderful fortunes of its sons.  Doubtless he had felt it incumbent on himself to sing my praises, for he had always been blind to my faults.  In this possibility of his tarrying to display my virtues there was some compensation for my sitting alone, with old Captain and young Colonel, both sleeping, and only my pipe for company.  Of course, I should really be there with Tim, but Nanny Pulsifer and Mrs. Spiker had decreed otherwise.  Who knows how great may be my reward for bringing them safely past the graveyard!

The third pipe snuffled out.  I opened the door and listened.  Tim’s minutes are long, for the last light in the village is out now.  I went to the gate and stood there till I caught the sound of foot-falls.  Then I whistled softly.  There was no reply, but in a moment Perry Thomas stepped into the light of our window.