was it? What was it?" cried every one in a roar.
Some slight movement of the eyes of the weeping and shuddering child
informed the company that she had been frightened by an appearance at
the window. At once they all faced the imperturbable window, and for a
moment there was a silence. An astute lad made an immediate census of
the other lads. The prank of slipping out and looming spectrally at a
window was too venerable. But the little boys were all present and
astonished.

As they recovered their minds they uttered warlike cries, and through
a side door sallied rapidly out against the terror. They vied with
each other in daring.

None wished particularly to encounter a dragon in the darkness of the
garden, but there could be no faltering when the fair ones in the
dining-room were present. Calling to each other in stern voices, they
went dragooning over the lawn, attacking the shadows with ferocity,
but still with the caution of reasonable beings. They found, however,
nothing new to the peace of the night. Of course there was a lad who
told a great lie. He described a grim figure, bending low and slinking
off along the fence. He gave a number of details, rendering his lie
more splendid by a repetition of certain forms which he recalled from
romances. For instance, he insisted that he had heard the creature
emit a hollow laugh.

Inside the house the little girl who had raised the alarm was still
shuddering and weeping. With the utmost difficulty was she brought to
a state approximating calmness by Mrs. Page. Then she wanted to go
home at once.

Page entered the house at this time. He had exiled himself until he
concluded that this children's party was finished and gone. He was
obliged to escort the little girl home because she screamed again when
they opened the door and she saw the night.

She was not coherent even to her mother. Was it a man? She didn't
know. It was simply a thing, a dreadful thing.

XVII

In Watermelon Alley the Farraguts were spending their evening as usual
on the little rickety porch. Sometimes they howled gossip to other
people on other rickety porches. The thin wail of a baby arose from a
near house. A man had a terrific altercation with his wife, to which
the alley paid no attention at all.

There appeared suddenly before the Farraguts a monster making a low
and sweeping bow. There was an instant's pause, and then occurred
something that resembled the effect of an upheaval of the e