45
Gabriel leaned forward in the silence; stiff, ready.
It was a thump, thump and maybe a snarl, away, muffled, and then a shriek, far away, then louder and louder, closer and closer, over the edge of the hill into the yard and up on the porch. The cabin was shaking with the weight of a body against the door. There was the feel of a rush inside the room and the scream was let in. Nancy!
"It got him!" she screamed. "Got him, sprung in through the winder, got him in the throat. Hezuh," she wailed, "ol' Hezuh."
Later in the night the men returned, carrying a rabbit and two squirrels.
III
Old Gabriel crept back through the darkness to his bed. He could sit in the chair a while or he could lie down. He eased down in the bed and pushed his nose into the feel and smell of the quilt. They won't no use to do that. He could smell the other jus' the same. He had been smellin' it, been smellin' it ever since they started talkin' about it. There it was one evenin'--different from all the smells around, different from niggers' and cows' an' ground smells. Wildcat. Tull Williams seen it jump on a bull.
Gabriel sat up suddenly. It was nearer. He got out the bed and pushed to the door. He had bolted that ones the other must be open. A breeze was coming in and
