Part 12 (2/2)

But as the thrashi+ng sounds continued and finally the cause of it caainst the door that opened from the kitchen upon that stairway, Jessie screamed almost as loud as Amy

Amy Dreever, ran out into the rain Neither Jessie nor the little freckle-faced girl were garbed properly for an appearance in the open; not even in as lonely a place as the clearing about the old Carter house To tell the truth, Henrietta kept on eating and did not at first get up from the table

”Aren't you scared, child?” dereed the little girl ”But ha'nts chase you anywhere

They can go right through keyholes and doors----”

”Mercy! Whatever it is seeh that door”

”There ain't no keyhole to it,” said Henrietta co continued at the foot of the stairs A for her chuan to be asha to see what it is,” she declared, approaching the door

”Maybe you won't see nothing,” said Henrietta ”Mrs Foley says that ha'nts is so Only you feel creepy and cold fingers touch you and a chilly breath hits the back o'

your neck”

”I declare!” exclais”

She looked about for sogest so hardwood stick standing in the corner Itof the kind Jessie seized it, and with , thump! the noise was repeated She stretched a tentative hand toward the latch Should she lift it? Was there so supernatural on the stairway?

She saw the door tre spiritual about that

”Whatever it is----”

To punctuate her observation Jessie Norwood lifted the iron latch and jerked open the door It was dusky in the stairway and she could not see a thing But almost instantly there tuht shriek after shriek from Jessie's lips

”Hi!” cried Henrietta ”Did it bite you?”

Jessie did not stop to answer She seized her skirt drying before the fire and wrapped it around her bare shoulders as she ran through the outer door She left behind her writhing all over the kitchen floor a pair of big blacksnakes

The fighting snakes hissed and thumped about, wound about each other like a braided rope Probably the war up the chimney had stirred the snakes up, and it was evident that they were in no pleasant frame ofin the rain

”It's worse! It's snakes!” Jessie declared, looking fearfully behind her, and in at the door

She had dropped the stick hich she had so valiantly faced the unknown But when that unknown had become known--and Jessie had always been very irl's valor seeoing on in there? Hear that thuuess,” replied her chum

”Where's Hen?”