know about things, all of the work is on a
fellow's shoulders, you see.

AUNT CLARA (still listening). Don't you hear something, Zindel? It
seems to me?

INSPECTOR ZINDEL (is startled and listens also). Where, pray tell?...
[Brief silence.]

AUNT CLARA (taking her hand from her ear). No, nothing. It only seemed
to me....

INSPECTOR ZINDEL. Heavens, Miss Clara!... Where was it--? (He walks up
and down restlessly.)

AUNT CLARA (has sat down in a chair at the table before the sofa). Now
they may be here at any time. What time is it, Zindel?

INSPECTOR ZINDEL. Almost seven. Miss. The Berlin train arrives at ten
minutes after six.

AUNT CLARA. You were outside, Zindel, weren't you; didn't you hear a
carriage on the road?

INSPECTOR ZINDEL (warms his hands at the fireplace). The wind's from
the other way, Miss. One can hear nothing. And it's cold as the deuce!
They'll be nice and cold on the way.

AUNT CLARA. I do not know how it comes, but the day seems unwilling to
break this morning. How does it look outside?

INSPECTOR ZINDEL. Dark, pitch dark. Not a star, nothing. Only over
toward the Sobbowitz woods, it's beginning to dawn a bit.

AUNT CLARA (yawning). Of course, that's where the sun must rise.

INSPECTOR ZINDEL (also yawning). We'll not get much of a peep at it
today. It's going to be a gloomy day.

AUNT CLARA. Possibly it will snow.

INSPECTOR ZINDEL. May be, why it's time. Christmas without snow, I
can't remember such a thing for the last few years.

AUNT CLARA. No night has ever turned out as long as the present one for
me. I haven't closed an eye. I heard the clock strike every time. And
all the things that I saw and heard!

INSPECTOR ZINDEL. (approaching again). Don't tell it, Miss!

AUNT CLARA. I continually saw the dead man, but he was alive and opened
the door and came toward me. And yet I knew he was dead. And when I was
about to scream, the clock struck and all was gone.

[Outside a clock strikes. It has the silvery sound of old chimes.
Both are startled.]

INSPECTOR ZINDEL. Thunderation! You can put it over a fellow. (He goes
back to the fireplace.)

AUNT CLARA (counts the strokes, first in an undertone, then louder, and
meanwhile rises). Five ... six ... seven ... It has struck seven,
Zindel. They will surely be here any moment. (She listens again.) I
believe I hear something now.

INSPECTOR ZINDEL (at the fireplace, seizes the lantern). Here they are.
You can