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Page 22
Then the supper bell rang, and they all left the room, but Henry
kept his back to the wall, as did, indeed, the others.
Mrs. Brigham pressed close to Caroline as she crossed the hall.
"He looked like a demon!" she breathed in her ear.
Henry led the way with an alert motion like a boy; Rebecca brought
up the rear; she could scarcely walk, her knees trembled so.
"I can't sit in that room again this evening," she whispered to
Caroline after supper.
"Very well, we will sit in the south room," replied Caroline. "I
think we will sit in the south parlour," she said aloud; "it isn't
as damp as the study, and I have a cold."
So they all sat in the south room with their sewing. Henry read
the newspaper, his chair drawn close to the lamp on the table.
About nine o'clock he rose abruptly and crossed the hall to the
study. The three sisters looked at one another. Mrs. Brigham
rose, folded her rustling skirts compactly around her, and began
tiptoeing toward the door.
"What are you going to do?" inquired Rebecca agitatedly.
"I am going to see what he is about," replied Mrs. Brigham
cautiously.
She pointed as she spoke to the study door across the hall; it was
ajar. Henry had striven to pull it together behind him, but it had
somehow swollen beyond the limit with curious speed. It was still
ajar and a streak of light showed from top to bottom. The hall
lamp was not lit.
"You had better stay where you are," said Caroline with guarded
sharpness.
"I am going to see," repeated Mrs. Brigham firmly.
Then she folded her skirts so tightly that her bulk with its
swelling curves was revealed in a black silk sheath, and she went
with a slow toddle across the hall to the study door. She stood
there, her eye at the crack.
In the south room Rebecca stopped sewing and sat watching with
dilated eyes. Caroline sewed steadily. What Mrs. Brigham,
standing at the crack in the study door, saw was this:
Henry Glynn, evidently reasoning that the source of the strange
shadow must be between the table on which the lamp stood and the
wall, was making systematic passes and thrusts all over and through
the intervening space with an old sword which had belonged to his
father. Not an inch was left unpierced. He seemed to have divided
the space into mathematical sections. He brandished the sword with
a sort of cold fury and calculation; the blade gave out flashes of
light, the shadow remained unmoved. Mrs. Brigham, watching, felt
herself cold with horror.
Finally Henry ceased and stood with the sword in hand and raised as
if to strike, surveying the shadow on the wall threateningly. Mrs.
Brigham toddled back across the hall and shut the south room door
behind her before she related what she had seen.
"He looked like a demon!" she said again. "Have you got any of
that old wine in the house, Caroline? I don't feel as if I could
stand much more."
Indeed, she looked overcome. Her handsome placid face was worn and
strained and pale.
"Yes, there's plenty," said Caroline; "you can have some when you
go to bed."
"I think we had all better take some," said Mrs. Brigham. "Oh, my
God, Caroline, what--"
"Don't ask and don't speak," said Caroline.
"No, I am not going to," replied Mrs. Brigham; "but--"
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