maha for a few days, leaving Antonia
in charge of the house. Since the scandal about the Swedish girl, Wick
Cutter could never get his wife to stir out of Black Hawk without him.

The day after the Cutters left, Antonia came over to see us. Grandmother
noticed that she seemed troubled and distracted. 'You've got something
on your mind, Antonia,' she said anxiously.

'Yes, Mrs. Burden. I couldn't sleep much last night.' She hesitated, and
then told us how strangely Mr. Cutter had behaved before he went away.
He put all the silver in a basket and placed it under her bed, and with
it a box of papers which he told her were valuable. He made her promise
that she would not sleep away from the house, or be out late in the
evening, while he was gone. He strictly forbade her to ask any of the
girls she knew to stay with her at night. She would be perfectly safe,
he said, as he had just put a new Yale lock on the front door.

Cutter had been so insistent in regard to these details that now she
felt uncomfortable about staying there alone. She hadn't liked the way
he kept coming into the kitchen to instruct her, or the way he looked at
her. 'I feel as if he is up to some of his tricks again, and is going to
try to scare me, somehow.'

Grandmother was apprehensive at once. 'I don't think it's right for you
to stay there, feeling that way. I suppose it wouldn't be right for
you to leave the place alone, either, after giving your word. Maybe Jim
would be willing to go over there and sleep, and you could come here
nights. I'd feel safer, knowing you were under my own roof. I guess
Jim could take care of their silver and old usury notes as well as you
could.'

Antonia turned to me eagerly. 'Oh, would you, Jim? I'd make up my bed
nice and fresh for you. It's a real cool room, and the bed's right next
the window. I was afraid to leave the window open last night.'

I liked my own room, and I didn't like the Cutters' house under any
circumstances; but Tony looked so troubled that I consented to try this
arrangement. I found that I slept there as well as anywhere, and when I
got home in the morning, Tony had a good breakfast waiting for me. After
prayers she sat down at the table with us, and it was like old times in
the country.

The third night I spent at the Cutters', I awoke suddenly with the
impression that I had heard a door open and shut. Everything was still,
however, and I must have gone to sleep again immediately.

The ne