the task, but a moment was
approaching when the tension would be too great to bear, and the long
pent-up force would rush forth into an act. Jimbo realised this quite
clearly; though he could not exactly express it in words, he felt that
his real hope of escape lay in the success of that act. Meanwhile, with
more than a child's wisdom, he stored up every particle of strength he
had for the great moment when it should come.

A light wind had risen soon after sunset, but as the night wore on it
began to fail, dropping away into little silences that grew each time
longer. In the heart of one of these spells of silence Jimbo presently
noticed a new sound--a sound that he recognised.

Far away at first, but growing in distinctness with every dropping of
the wind, this new sound rose from the interior of the house below and
came gradually upon him. It was voices faintly singing, and the tread of
stealthy footsteps.

Nearer and nearer came the sound, till at length they reached the door,
and there passed into the room a wave of fine, gentle sound that woke no
echo and scarcely seemed to stir the air into vibration at all. The door
had opened, and a number of voices were singing softly under their
breath.

And after the sounds, creeping slowly like some timid animal, there came
into the room a small black figure just visible in the faint starlight.
It peered round the edge of the door, hesitated a moment, and then
advanced with an odd rhythmical sort of motion. And after the first
figure came a second, and after the second a third; and then several
entered together, till a whole group of them stood on the floor between
Jimbo and the open window.

Then he recognised the Frightened Children and his heart sank. Even
they, he saw, were arrayed against him, and took it for granted that he
already belonged to them.

Oh, why did not the governess come for him? Why was there no voice in
the sky? He glanced with longing towards the heavens, and as the
children moved past, he was almost certain that he saw the stars
_through_ their bodies too.

Slowly they shuffled across the floor till they formed a semicircle
round the bed; and then they began a silent, impish dance that made the
flesh creep. Their thin forms were dressed in black gowns like shrouds,
and as they moved through the steps of the bizarre measure he saw that
their legs were little more than mere skin and bone. Their faces--what
he could see of them when he dared to