In The Early Morning

She was not dead: Halsey put her down on the floor, and began to rub
her cold hands, while Gertrude and Liddy ran for stimulants. As for me,
I sat there at the foot of that ghostly staircase--sat, because my
knees wouldn't hold me--and wondered where it would all end. Louise
was still unconscious, but she was breathing better, and I suggested
that we get her back to bed before she came to. There was something
grisly and horrible to me, seeing her there in almost the same attitude
and in the same place where we had found her brother's body. And to
add to the similarity, just then the hall clock, far off, struck
faintly three o'clock.

It was four before Louise was able to talk, and the first rays of dawn
were coming through her windows, which faced the east, before she could
tell us coherently what had occurred. I give it as she told it. She
lay propped in bed, and Halsey sat beside her, unrebuffed, and held her
hand while she talked.

"I was not sleeping well," she began, "partly, I think, because I had
slept during the afternoon. Liddy brought me some hot milk at ten
o'clock and I slept until twelve. Then I wakened and--I got to
thinking about things, and worrying, so I could not go to sleep.

"I was wondering why I had not heard from Arnold since the--since I saw
him that night at the lodge. I was afraid he was ill, because--he was
to have done something for me, and he had not come back. It must have
been three when I heard some one rapping. I sat up and listened, to be
quite sure, and the rapping kept up. It was cautious, and I was about
to call Liddy.