nything more I
can do for you?' asked she, glancing hastily about the room.

"I thanked her and said 'no,' at which she at once departed with a look
of still determination upon her countenance that I found it hard to
explain.

"Left alone in that large, bare and dimly lighted room, with the wind
shrieking in the chimney and the powerful limbs of some huge tree
beating against the walls without, with a heavy thud inexpressibly
mournful, I found to my surprise and something like dismay, that the
sleepiness which had hitherto oppressed me, had in some unaccountable
way entirely fled. In vain I contemplated the bed, comfortable enough
now in its appearance that the stifling curtains were withdrawn; no
temptation to invade it came to arouse me from the chair into which I
had thrown myself. It was as if I felt myself under the spell of some
invisible influence that like the eye of a basilisk, held me enchained.
I remember turning my head towards a certain quarter of the wall as if
I half expected to encounter there the bewildering glance of a serpent.
Yet far from being apprehensive of any danger, I only wondered over the
weakness of mind that made such fancies possible.

"An extra loud swirl of the foliage without, accompanied by a quick
vibration of the house, aroused me at last. If I was to lose the sense
of this furious storm careering over my head, I must court sleep at
once. Rising, I drew off my coat, unloosened my vest and was about to
throw it off, when I bethought me of a certain wallet it contained.
Going to the door in some unconscious impulse of precaution I suppose, I
locked myself in, and then drawing out my wallet, took from it a roll of
bills which I put into a small side pocket, returning the wallet to its
old place.

"Why I did this I can scarcely say. As I have before intimated, I
was under no special apprehension. I was at that time anything but a
suspicious man, and the manner and appearance of the men below struck me
as unpleasantly disagreeable but nothing more. But I not only did what I
have related, but allowed the lamp to remain lighted, lying down finally
in my clothes; an almost unprecedented act on my part, warranted however
as I said to myself, by the fury of the gale which at that time seemed
as if it would tumble the roof over our heads.

"How long I lay listening to the creakings and groanings of the rickety
old house, I cannot say, nor how long I remained in the doze which
finally seiz