The Three [pp. 464-468]

THE THREE.
bricks. It was not later than midnight
when I ascended the second flight of
stairs, on no thoughts intent but the
soothing ones of bestowing myself into
the inviting arms of Morpheus as speed ily as possible. It was a preternaturally
bright night out-of-doors. The uncloud ed disk of a full moon poured a flood of
luminous radiance upon the patch of un carpeted floor underlying the sky-light.
Humming a somnolent air, I passed from
the hall into my room, and drew a luci fer against the wall to ignite the gas with.
Just as I applied the flaming match to
the jet, a whiff of wind, or of something
else, blew it out, and my attention was
instantly arrested by three very une quivocal raps, such as only a hard knuckled, importunate individual would
be guilty of perpetrating-administered,
apparently, to the door of an adjoining
apartment. Wondering how he, or she,
could have come up-stairs without being heard, I stepped into the hall. From
the solidity of the raps, I expected to see
a large, masculine person; but to my infinite surprise, there was no visible presence in the hall!
The door of the next room opened,
and the lady, who, with her husband, occupied it, thrust out her head, and, seeing me, inquired:
"Did you rap?"
"I did not," I replied; "I heard raps,
I thought, upon your door, and not having heard any one come into the hall,
I stepped from my room to ascertain
whence the sounds came."
"It is very strange," she said, glancing nervously about. "The same phenomenon has occurred once before tonight, and, on opening my door, no one
was to be seen. What can it be?"
"Nothing," I jocosely said, "or next
to nothing. I am sure it is nothing but
can be easily traced and accounted for,
should the phenomenon again occur.
Probably it was the wind. It is tossing
itself about wonderfully, outside."
She shook her head in that negative
way that women will when not convinced.
"I do not believe the wind could thump
a door like that. The raps were too reg ular and methodical for the wind. It
was altogether different from the desul tory rattle usually produced by a gust.
Besides, the doors are all shut, and there
is no passage above nor below for a cur rent of air. I fear it is an omen of evil.
My husband is absent much beyond his
customary hour, and I am apprehensive
something dreadful has befallen him."
Here she washed her hands nervously
in imperceptible water, and despairing ly wrung them out.
"Nonsense!" This was the most
comforting assurance I could think of
at the moment.
Another negative shake of the head.
"I don't know whether it is nonsense or
good sense. Men are so hard-hearted
and skeptical that they always laugh
faith in premonitions to scorn. I remember poor grandfather had just such
a mysterious warning shortly before he
died. He was splitting wood in the shed
one morning, and heard three raps on
the roof above his head. He looked up
at the first raps, and paid them no further attention. They came twice more,
very distinct and unequivocal. He went
in and told grandmother he was going to
die. She kept on darning a pair of his
stockings, and said, as you have said
nonsense! But he did die. He never
wore the stockings she was darning.
How do you account for such things?"
"Superstition, pure and simple-very
simple. Should we have another call, I
have no doubt we shall be able to trace
effect to cause, and that, I am confident,
will prove to be simple to absurdity."
She reluctantly withdrew into her
room, and closed the door. I re-entered mine, and was fumbling for another
match to renew the experiment of lighting the gas, when the raps were repeated with such deliberate and startling
I87I.]
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