“Jessup is a man of many parts,” smiled Ware.
A CLOCK chimed eleven. The showman decided to retire. He went upstairs, and Mildred followed a few minutes later. She could hear Harvey, still awake in his room.
The girl went to her own room, and donned a dressing gown. She turned out the light and rested in bed, sleeplessly staring through the window at the moonlight, her mind revolving in endless thought.
The clock downstairs chimed twelve. More minutes passed; still, Mildred could not sleep. Something impelled her to go downstairs again. She crept softly from her room and descended; then went out on the porch. The sight of the bench over by the shore made her realize why she had come here.
Tonight was very much like the other night when she had watched the lawn and the grove from that secluded bench. Why not watch again tonight? If she could see nothing, her vague fears would be allayed; if new specters should appear, she would be able to study them more carefully and to report at length to Harvey in the morning.
Mildred went across the moon-bathed lawn, and reached the little bench. She rested there, watching, while long, placid minutes slipped by. The moon overhead was very nearly full. Its influence seemed powerful to Mildred. Could this moon be responsible for the strange phantom that she had seen?
Looking off toward the grove, Mildred saw lights far above the blackened beeches. Someone was awake in the house upon the hill.
Had Wilbur Chittenden returned?
Mildred shuddered. She thought of the grove. Walter Pearson had entered it; so, according to report, had Wilbur Chittenden. Last of all, Galbraith and Zachary had gone into that weird place. She looked toward the edge of the trees and — as on that other night — her whole being seemed to freeze.
From the grove a figure was emerging — the form of the crouching Chinaman, Lei Chang. The whole scene seemed like a grotesque flash-back to the former episode. The stooped man was moving toward the house. His pockmarked face shone yellow in the moonlight. The evil-visaged Oriental seemed more hideous than before!
The Chinaman stopped beside the house. He emitted his low, weird whistle. It was answered. Up the steps went Lei Chang. He silently entered the front door. Once again, Mildred followed and found her listening post beside the open window.
“Koon Woon — Koon Woon” — Mildred shuddered at the lilting tone she heard. “The Master — soon he will sleep. He will do more work — but he must sleep.”
An unheard response; then came an affirmative approval from the Chinaman.
“One week — yes — velly good. One week for The Master to wait. Velly good. Velly hungry tonight, though. Lei Chang must be good to The Master.”
Another pause; then Lei Chang added:
“Lei Chang bringee out. Leave where he find samee Koon Woon need. The Master he do work; Lei Chang see he getee what he need. Velly good.”
Through the door came the sinister yellow man. Mildred, hiding, watched him go back across the lawn.
Then, after a long pause, she crept into the house and listened at the stairs. She was positive that she could hear Harvey moving about.
WITH trembling nerves, Mildred forced herself to go back to the lawn. Again she sought the bench from which she could so safely watch. She looked toward the house, and out in back, she spied a moving figure. At first, she thought it might be the black-clad, shadowy phantom. Then she recognized the fact that it was a tall man.
Harvey?
Mildred could not tell.
Jessup?
The girl was not sure. The man was stooping, and now he seemed to be lifting a burden which was hidden by the blackness. The man was going to the grove!
Scarcely had the man entered the shadow of the trees before Mildred glanced above the woods and noted that the lights had been extinguished at Upper Beechview. Did this fact hold significance? Could someone — Lei Chang perhaps — have come from there?
No — somehow, Mildred was sure that the pock-faced man dwelt within the grove itself.
Now the tall man was coming from the trees. His form was very vague as he hurried back to the house.
He went out of sight in back. Then Mildred was surprised to see him come up out of the ground beside the building. For a moment the girl gasped; then she realized that the man had been in the cellar, and was coming through a door that led to the lawn. Again he moved swiftly toward the trees and Mildred was still confused as to his identity.
She expected the man to reappear; and he did, struggling with a new burden, a large, compact sack that he carried on his shoulders. He went into the cellar with this load and Mildred suddenly realized that this must be the exchange of which Lei Chang had spoken. Something had been taken to the grove; something had been brought back from it.
Mildred became suddenly conscious that she was not the only one who had watched this strange procedure. Her eyes were drawn automatically to a spot close to the grove. There, she saw the sight that made her tremble — not so much with fear, as with tense anticipation.
Close to the shadow of the beeches stood the tall being in black. Once again Mildred was observing that mysterious personage known as The Shadow. Waiting motionless, the sinister shape appeared like a chiseled statue. Long minutes passed before The Shadow moved; then, with gliding sweep, he went across the lawn, and his body merged with the side of the house directly by the cellar door.
MILDRED’S nerves could no longer stand the strain. She knew that the stranger of the night had entered the cellar, where the man from the house had gone. What if the man from the house were Harvey! Had he had time to leave the cellar before he had been followed?
Mildred tried to scream as she dashed across the lawn and up the steps; but her voice failed her. She rushed into the house and up the stairs. A figure blocked her path. She cried aloud now, as she seized the man who was moving out of her way.
“Harvey! Harvey!” she cried.
Harvey’s voice answered her within her very arms. It was her husband whom she had seen here in the darkness; it was he whom she had seized!
A light came on in the hall. Craig Ware, awakened by the noise, was standing in pajamas, blinking in bewildered fashion. Harvey, fully dressed, was glowering at Mildred angrily.
“What’s the matter?” he demanded. “Where were you?”
“Nothing” — Mildred was gasping — “I was just out on the lawn — walking about. I–I thought you were out there, Harvey.”
“Outside the house?” blurted Harvey. “I? You have been dreaming, Mildred.”
“But you are dressed—”
“Of course. I didn’t go to bed. I was in my room. I heard you rushing up the steps. I came out to see what was the matter.”
More men were arriving now — Jessup and his two companions, from the back of the house. Jessup was clad in trousers and pajama jacket; the others were in pajamas. Craig Ware met them and sent them back.
“It’s all right, boys,” he said quietly. “Mrs. Chittenden had a bad nightmare — that’s all.”
Harvey was darting back to his room. Mildred followed him. He turned on the light. Craig Ware joined them, and Mildred looked from one man to the other.
“You had better go back to bed,” said Harvey. “You have been dreaming Mildred.”
“I can’t, Harvey,” responded Mildred. “I must tell you what I really saw. Men walking on the lawn—”
“Don’t annoy me!” cried Harvey angrily. “You’ll drive me mad, with these wild imaginings!”
Mildred would not stop. Her whole being was terrorized with unexplained impressions.