stick for it. I then sat down on the edge of the bunk and anxiously awaited developments. But nothing occurred to mar the somber silence of my prison.
Thus I remained until my watch pointed to the hour of nine. My journey had greatly fatigued me, but my fears counterbalanced my weariness, so that I kept awake in spite of it.
At length, however, my eyelids grew heavy; my eyes became bleary, so that the candle multiplied, and my head drooped until my chin rested on my chest.
Letting the candle burn, I lay back on the hard bunk. I was cold and very nervous, and greatly felt the need of food and dry clothing. But my fatigue soon overcame me and I fell asleep.
When I awakened, a sense of suffocation and bewilderment hung over me. Whereas the room had been cold when I lay down, it now seemed close and hot. I pulled myself to a sitting posture. The room was dark. The candle was out.
I jumped to my feet and started toward the table. But in another moment I stood frozen to the spot, my eyes arrested and my body palsied by what I saw before me.
AT THE far end of the room was a purple glow in the shape of a human heart. It was stationary when I saw it, but almost immediately it began to move about the room. Now it was at the window. Then beside the table. Again it moved quickly but silently into the other room.
I pulled my frightened senses together and groped my way to the table. I found a match. With trembling hands, I struck it and lit the candle. To my surprise, it was almost as tall as when I had fallen asleep. I looked at my watch. It was one o'clock.
A moment later the flame was snuffed out and I was again in total darkness. I looked wildly about me. Horrors! The purple heart was beside me! I shrank back in terror. It came closer.
Suddenly I acquired superhuman courage. I grasped for the specter. I touched nothing. I placed my left hand before me at arm's length. Lo! it was between me and my hand!
Presently it moved away. A great calm settled over me and I began to sense a presence in the room. Now, without any fear and with steady hand, I again struck a match and lighted the candle. It was promptly extinguished. I struck another with similar results.
And now something brushed my lips and an arm was passed lightly about my shoulders, but I was no longer afraid. The room continued cozily warm, and a greater sense of peace came over me.
Presently I lay down again and watched the purple heart as it came toward me and took its place at the edge of the bunk, like some loved one sitting beside me.
I must have fallen asleep again, for I knew no more until broad daylight awakened me, and I found myself lying in the middle of the room. There was no fog. The sun was shining brightly, and a broad beam was streaming through the dusty window pane. The candle and the matches were no longer visible.
Suddenly I thought of the locked door. Springing to it, I gave a mighty pull. It opened easily!
I snatched my cap from the rough floor and hurried into the warm sunlight.
A short distance from me a man came trudging along. He was a powerful looking fellow of middle age and was dressed in coarse working clothes.
"Do you know anything about that cabin?" I shouted, as we drew closer.
"Sure. It's haunted," he replied. He looked hard at me. "Were you in there last night?"
I related my experience.
"That's queer!" he muttered. "But I ain't surprised. Last night was the night."
"What night?" I demanded.
"Ten years ago an old man was murdered in that cabin, and his son swore on his deathbed he'd come back every anniversary and lure somebody into the cabin for the night and torture him."
He shuddered, his white face staring at the cabin.
"Come away!" he whispered. "Come away! It's haunted! It's haunted!"
MYRA looked up from her writing.
"David," she said, "I am positive I heard a cat outside."
The man only growled, settled himself deeper in his comfortable chair, and continued to read.
The giant breath of the blizzard rattled the windows. The snow flung itself wrathfully against the panes. Outside it was bitter cold.
"I can't bear to think of a cat outside on a night like this," continued Myra
"Forget it!" exclaimed David, arousing himself, "You are continually thinking of cats. All that I hear from you is cats. You dream of cats, you occupy your mind with cats. I heard no cat crying outside. It is only your imagination."
"No; I heard a cat—I am sure," insisted Myra.
It was warm inside. David sat beneath a green-shaded reading lamp. The pyramid of light fell on his tall figure, attired in a dressing-gown and slippers, slouched comfortably in the chair.
Myra sat at a desk, scribbling in a book, now and then tapping her lips with her penholder. She wore a clinging, yellow negligee, and her hair was done back tightly on her head. In her sleek, brown coil of hair at the back there was a large Spanish comb.
"David; I know I heard a cat then!" she cried, throwing down her pen. "You surely must have heard it, too."
David laid down his book.
"When you are through dreaming of cats," he said, "I'll be able to read."
Myra rose.
"I cannot bear to think of a cat out on a night like this—a little homeless cat."
Then she walked from the room.
David mused. Cats! Nothing but cats! She had gone insane on the subject of cats. He had never known her to be so unreasonable about cats. She seemed worse since their cat, Rodolpho, had died. Her mind seemed now occu-
