attic, and in response to an inquiring look Nahum said that his wife
was getting very feeble. When night approached, Ammi managed to get
away; for not even friendship could make him stay in that spot when the
faint glow of the vegetation began and the trees may or may not have
swayed without wind. It was really lucky for Ammi that he was not more
imaginative. Even as things were, his mind was bent ever so slightly;
but had he been able to connect and reflect upon all the portents
around him he must inevitably have turned a total maniac. In the
twilight, he hastened home, the screams of the mad woman and the nervous
child ringing horrible in his ears.

Three days later Nahum burst into Ammi's kitchen in the early morning,
and in the absence of his host stammered out a desperate tale once
more, while Mrs. Pierce listened in a clutching fright. It was little
Merwin this time. He was gone. He had gone out late at night with a
lantern and pail for water, and had never come back. He'd been going
to pieces for days, and hardly knew what he was about. Screamed at
everything. There had been a frantic shriek from the yard then, but
before the father could get to the door the boy was gone. There was no
glow from the lantern he had taken, and of the child himself no trace.
At the time Nahum thought the lantern and pail were gone too; but when
dawn came, and the man had plodded back from his all-night search of
the woods and fields, he had found some very curious things near the
well. There was a crushed and apparently somewhat melted mass of iron
which had certainly been the lantern; while a bent pail and twisted
iron hoops beside it, both half-fused, seemed to hint at the remnants
of the pail. That was all. Nahum was past imagining, Mrs. Pierce was
blank, and Ammi, when he had reached home and heard the tale, could
give no guess. Merwin was gone, and there would be no use in telling
the people around, who shunned all Gardners now. No use, either, in
telling the city people at Arkham who laughed at everything. Thad was
gone, and now Merwin was gone. Something was creeping and creeping and
waiting to be seen and heard. Nahum would go soon, and he wanted Ammi
to look after his wife and Zenas if they survived him. It must all be a
judgment of some sort; though he could not fancy what for, since he had
always walked uprightly in the Lord's ways so far as he knew.

For over two weeks Ammi saw nothing of Nahum; and then, worried about
what might have happened, he overcame his fears and paid the Gardner
place a visit. There was no smoke from the great chimney, and for a

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