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Page 29
"No, it is I," replied James. "Put on something as quick as you can, and
come down here. Something is wrong."
Aaron's head disappeared. In an incredibly short space of time the
stable door was unlocked and slid cautiously back, and Aaron stood
there, huddled into his clothes. "What's up?" he asked.
"I don't know. Have you got a lantern in the stable?"
"Yep."
"Light it quick, then, and come along with me."
Aaron obeyed. "Anybody sick," he asked, coming alongside with the
flashing lantern. He threw a cloth over it so as to prevent the rays
shining into the house windows. "I don't want to frighten her," he said,
and James knew that he meant Mrs. Ewing. "She's awful nervous," said
Aaron. Then he said again, "What's up?"
"I saw a man's face looking into one of my windows," replied James.
Aaron gave a low whistle. "Somebody wanted the doc?" he inquired.
"No," replied James shortly, "it was not."
"Must have been."
"No, it was not."
"Must have been," repeated Aaron, chewing.
"I tell you it was not. I knew--" James stopped. He suddenly wondered
how much he ought to tell the man, how much Doctor Gordon had told him.
Aaron chewed imperturbably, but a sly look came into his face. "I have
eyes, and they see, and ears, and they hear," he said, after an odd
Scriptural fashion, "but don't you tell me nothin', Doctor Elliot.
Either I take what I get from the fountain-head, or I makes my own
conclusions that I can't help. Don't you tell me nothin'. S'pose we look
an' see ef there's footprints that show anythin'."
Aaron flashed the lantern, all the time carefully shading it from the
house windows, over the walk which led to the front door and the piazza.
James followed him. "Well," said Aaron, "there's been somebody here,
but, with snow like this, it might have been a monkey or a rhinoceros
or an alligator. You can't make nothin' of them tracks. But they do go
out to the road, and turn toward Stanbridge."
"Suppose we--" began James. He was about to suggest following the
prints, when he remembered Doctor Gordon's injunction to the contrary.
However, Aaron anticipated him. "Might as well leave the devil alone,"
said he. "It might have been the old one himself, for all we can tell by
them tracks. You had better go back to bed, Doctor Elliot. You ain't got
much on. It ain't near breakfast time yet. Better go back to bed."
And James thought such a course the wiser one himself. He went back to
bed, but not to sleep. He kept his eyes fixed upon the windows. He was
prepared at any instant, should the man reappear, to spring out. He felt
almost murderous. "It has come to a pretty pass," he thought, "if that
scoundrel, whoever he may be, is lurking around the house at night."
The daylight came slowly on account of the storm. When it did come, it
was an opaque white daylight. James began to smell coffee and frying
ham. He rose and dressed himself, and looked out of the window. It was
like looking into a blurred mirror. He began to wonder if he could have
been mistaken, if possibly that face had been simply a vision which had
come from his overwrought brain. He wondered if he should tell Doctor
Gordon, if it might not disturb him unnecessarily. He wondered if he
should have enforced secrecy upon Aaron. He was still undecided when the
Japanese gong sounded, and he went out to breakfast. Clemency was
looking worn and ill. Somehow the sight of her piteous little face
decided James. He thought how easily an athletic man could climb up one
of those piazza posts, which was, moreover, encircled by a strong old
vine which might almost serve as ladder. He made up his mind to tell
Doctor Gordon, and he did tell him when they were out upon their rounds,
tilting and sliding along the drifted country roads in an old sleigh. "I
don't think I can be mistaken," he said when he had finished.
Doctor Gordon looked at him intently. "You are sure," he said. "You are
a nervous subject for a man, and you had not slept, and you had this man
very much on your mind, and there must have been some snow on the
window which could produce an illusion. Be very sure, because this is
serious."
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