They had remained too long
and now, their retreat cut off, they scrambled, cursing
and screaming, to the second floor.
Along the hallway they rushed to the closed door at
the end--the door of the room in which the three lis-
tened breathlessly--hurling themselves against it in vio-
lent effort to gain admission.
"Who are you and what do you want?" cried Bridge.
"Let us in! Let us in!" screamed two voices. "Fer
God's sake let us in. Can't you hear IT? It'll be comin'
up here in a minute."
The sound of the dragging chain could be heard at in-
tervals upon the floor below. It seemed to the tense lis-
teners above to pause beside the dead man as though
hovering in gloating exultation above its gruesome prey
and then it moved again, this time toward the stairway
where they all heard it ascending with a creepy slow-
ness which wrought more terribly upon tense nerves
than would a sudden rush.
"The mills of the Gods grind slowly," quoted Bridge.
"Oh, don't!" pleaded The Oskaloosa Kid.
"Let us in," screamed the men without. "Fer the luv
o' Mike have a heart! Don't leave us out here! IT's
comin'! IT's comin'!"
"Oh, let the poor things in," pleaded the girl on the
bed.
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