For a
few moments they heard it, and then all was silent.
For a dozen tense minutes the five listened; but there
was no repetition of any sound from below. Suddenly
the girl breathed a deep sigh, and the spell of terror was
broken. Bridge felt rather than heard the youth sobbing
softly against his breast, while across the room The Gen-
eral gave a quick, nervous laugh which he as immedi-
ately suppressed as though fearful unnecessarily of
calling attention to their presence. The other vagabond
fumbled with his hypodermic needle and the narcotic
which would quickly give his fluttering nerves the quiet
they craved.
Bridge, the boy, and the girl shivered together in their
soggy clothing upon the edge of the bed, feeling now in
the cold dawn the chill discomfort of which the excite-
ment of the earlier hours of the night had rendered them
unconscious. The youth coughed.
"You've caught cold," said Bridge, his tone almost self-
reproachful, as though he were entirely responsible for
the boy's condition. "We're a nice aggregation of molly-
coddles--five of us sitting half frozen up here with a
stove on the floor below, and just because we heard a
noise which we couldn't explain and hadn't the nerve to
investigate.
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