She did not know how long she had slept when she was suddenly and
terribly awakened by a woman's shriek sounding from the room
immediately overhead, in which, upon the night previous, Capitola
had slept.
Starting up in bed, Clara listened.
The shriek was repeated--prolonged and piercing--and was accompanied
by a muffled sound of struggling that shook the ceiling overhead.
Instinctively springing from her bed, Clara threw on her dressing-
gown and flew to the door; but just as she turned the latch to open
it she heard a bolt slipped on the outside and found herself a
prisoner in her own chamber.
Appalled, she stood and listened.
Presently there came a sound of footsteps on the stairs and a heavy
muffled noise as of some dead weight being dragged down the
staircase and along the passage. Then she heard the hall door
cautiously opened and shut. And, finally, she distinguished the
sound of wheels rolling away from the house.
Unable longer to restrain herself, she rapped and beat upon her own
door, crying aloud for deliverance.
Presently the bolt was withdrawn, the door jerked open and Dorcas
Knight, with a face of horror, stood before her.
"What is the matter! Who was that screaming? In the name of mercy,
what has happened?" cried Clara, shrinking in abhorrence from the
ghastly woman.
"Hush! it is nothing! There were two tomcats screaming and fighting
in the attic, and they fought all the way downstairs, rolling over
and over each other.
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