Cinder Path Tales

CINDER-PATH TALES my blood, so full of the agony of fearwas it, and I sat still and held my breath until a second and a third, not less hideous, reached my ears, and then I gathered myself together, rushed to the window, and threw up the curtain. By this time all was silent again, and I half wondered if I had only imagined the cry. I looked out over the field and track, see­ ing nothing but the shifting shadows, more bewildering than absolute darkness,which a half moon throwsthrough broken clouds.It was a particularly ghastly light; there was not a thing stirring, not even the wind, until suddenly the bending figure of a man at extreme speed emerged from the gloom, sprang up the steps with a single leap, anda second later the huge door beneath my feet was shaken in a furious fashion. I confess to a feeling ofrelief as I thought of its two-inch oak plank, nail studded and heavy hinged, and knew that the assailant, whoever he was, couldnot gain entrancewith anything less than an old-fashioned battering- ram. I was also a bit startled, for I could not at all make out what the trouble was. The door-shaking continuing, accompanied by the kicks of a heavy footand a series of yells, I seized the heavy poker f om the hearth and hurried down-stairs.