his cigar into the grate.

"I'll tell you what, my boy," said he. "I never had a head for
figures, so you will excuse me. You must jot it all down upon paper,
and let me have a note of the amount. I'll understand it when I see it
in black and white."

The proposal was encouraging. I promised to do so.

"And now it's time we were in bed. By Jove, there's one o'clock
striking in the hall."

The tingling of the chiming clock broke through the deep roar of the
gale. The wind was sweeping past with the rush of a great river.

"I must see my cat before I go to bed," said my host. "A high wind
excites him. Will you come?"

"Certainly," said I.

"Then tread softly and don't speak, for everyone is asleep."

We passed quietly down the lamp-lit Persian-rugged hall, and through
the door at the farther end. All was dark in the stone corridor, but a
stable lantern hung on a hook, and my host took it down and lit it.
There was no grating visible in the passage, so I knew that the beast
was in its cage.

"Come in!" said my relative, and opened the door.

A deep growling as we entered showed that the storm had really excited
the creature. In the flickering light of the lantern, we saw it, a
huge black mass coiled in the corner of its den and throwing a squat,
uncouth shadow upon the whitewashed wall. Its tail switched angrily
among the straw.

"Poor Tommy is not in the best of tempers," said Everard King, holding
up the lantern and looking in at him. "What a black devil he looks,
doesn't he? I must give him a little supper to put him in a better
humour. Would you mind holding the lantern for a moment?"

I took it from his hand and he stepped to the door.

"His larder is just outside here," said he. "You will excuse me for an
instant won't you?" He passed out, and the door shut with a sharp
metallic click behind him.

That hard crisp sound made my heart stand still. A sudden wave of
terror passed over me. A vague perception of some monstrous treachery
turned me cold. I sprang to the door, but there was no handle upon the
inner side.

"Here!" I cried. "Let me out!"

"All right! Don't make a row!" said my host from the passage. "You've
got the light all right."

"Yes, but I don't care about being locked in alone like this."

"Don't you?" I heard his hearty, chuckling laugh. "You won't be alone
long."

"Let me out, sir!" I repeated angrily. "I tell you I don't allow
practical jokes of this s