DAVID HARKINS

Herbert Harkins prepared to go to bed that night with a very heavy heart. He could not rid himself of the notion that he was the cause of the troubles that were gathering so rapidly about their home. Sleep is said to be the best medicine for a troubled mind; but unfortunately Herbert was not able to go to sleep. Usually he was in the land of dreams as soon as his head touched the pillow, but this night he was afflicted with a peculiar nervousness that could not be overcome. More than this he was greatly disturbed over the agitated condition of his father. He knew that he was sitting at his desk in the front room downstairs. He had spoken to him when he came home, and now from the light that was shining up the stairway he knew that his father was still awake. Presently he heard the movement of a chair, and then the steady tramping of feet indicating that Mr. Harkins was walking up and down the room.

Suddenly this monotonous sound was broken by[34] a sharp rap on the front door. Herbert heard his father respond to the summons. The bolt was drawn back, the door opened, and then came a sound like the cry of recognition from two men. The door was softly closed again, and then came the steady mumbling of voices. This continued so long that Herbert became frightened. He got out of bed in the dark, and going into the hallway crept downstairs silently, step by step, until he had reached the doorway leading into the parlor. The light was turned down and the room was quite dim; but he could see his father and another man seated at a table engaged in earnest conversation. The stranger wore a full beard, and his head was covered with a great shock of red hair, in much disorder. The two men were so much engaged that they did not notice the half frightened boy standing near the doorway. Herbert on his part was so much interested in what he saw that for the time being he forgot the situation in which he had placed himself.

[34]

At times the two men were so close together that it would hardly have been possible to have drawn a sheet of paper between them. The stranger, in order to illustrate some point that he was making in his talk, threw his arm violently in the air, and in doing so overturned a little China ornament that was on the table, sending it crashing to the floor. Both men started violently at this[35] unexpected happening, and then glanced nervously around the room as if to see whether anyone were listening. At the first sound of the falling ornament, Herbert started to run upstairs; but when the conversation was resumed some strange power seemed to 

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