in the close, overheated room where her grandfather prayed. Her new friend of this day was at the Rock where his light was burning steadily. Perhaps Miss Platt's husband had gone out there curiously; but nothing else was happening. If she went on to the Rock—and there was no use in going further, without going all the way—and saw Barney Loutrelle there, what would she say to him?
She turned back to St. Florentin and soon heard a shout which she recognized to be Sam Green Sky's voice. When she replied, Sam hastened up, reporting friendlily:
"Old man send me after you, awful mad; old man tell you to come right home and stay there."
Ethel found her grandfather to be "awful mad" indeed; he met her at the door and ordered her to go to her room and to bed and stay there. What did she mean by going out in the dark to see a stranger whom she had met on the train? She was his granddaughter and at his own house, and he would be obeyed.
She obeyed him by going to her room; but she did not undress for bed. The light upon the Rock was still glowing; and she left her window shade up while she lay on her bed watching it. She heard her grandfather and her grandmother come upstairs, and she heard Miss Platt proceed to the rooms on the second floor and at the further end of the house, which she shared with her husband. Ethel was sure also that Mrs. Singlewolf and Naomi had retired; but Kincheloe was not in the house.
He had been away when she had returned, and he had not come in since. At eleven o'clock Ethel rebuilt the fire in her stove and sat in a chair by her window. The light on the Rock continued to burn;
