had stopped. He sat erect in his chair,
stiffened, listening, with his heart pounding so that the beat of it
seemed to shake his tense body. His grandfather--returning?

An automobile horn honked. Footsteps sounded on the verandah. The front
doorbell rang.

There were voices outside as he crossed the living room--a man's voice,
and then a girl's laugh. He flung open the door. It was a young man in
dinner clothes and a tall blonde girl. Tom Franklin, and a vivid,
theatrical-looking girl, whom Lee had never seen before. She was inches
taller than her companion. She stood clinging to his arm; her beautiful
face, with beaded lashes and heavily rouged lips, was laughing. She was
swaying; her companion steadied her, but he was swaying himself.

"Easy, Viv," he warned. "We made it--tol' you we would.... Hello there,
Lee ol' man--your birthday--think I'd forget a thing like that, not on
your life. So we come t'celebrate--meet Vivian Lamotte--frien' o' mine.
Nice kid, Viv--you'll like her."

"Hello," the girl said. She stared up at Lee. He towered above her, and
beside him the undersized and stoop-shouldered Franklin was swaying
happily. Admiration leaped into the girl's eyes.

"Say," she murmured, "you sure are a swell looker for a fact. He said
you were--but my Gawd--"

"And his birthday too," Frank agreed, "so we're gonna celebrate--" His
slack-jawed, weak-chinned face radiated happiness and triumph. "Came
fas' to get here in time. I tol' Viv I could make it--we never hit a
thing--"

"Why, yes--come in," Lee agreed awkwardly. He had only met young Tom
Franklin once or twice, a year ago now, and Lee had completely forgotten
it. The son of a rich man, with more money than was good for him....
With old Anna lying there upstairs--surely he did not want these happy
inebriated guests here now....

He stood with them just inside the threshold. "I--I'm awfully sorry," he
began. "My birthday--yes, but you see--old Mrs. Green--my guardian--just
all the family I've got--she died, just a few minutes ago--upstairs
here--I've been here alone with her--"

It sobered them. They stared blankly. "Say, my Gawd, that's tough," the
girl murmured. "Your birthday too. Tommy listen, we gotta get
goin'--can't celebrate--"

It seemed that there was just a shadow out on the dark verandah. A tall
figure in a dark cloak.

"Why--what the hell," Franklin muttered.

A group of gliding soundless figures were out there in the darkness. And
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