Then I Sat and Wished Them Gone.

A shriek had been heard by a neighbor during the night. Suspicion of foul play had been aroused. Information had been lodged at the police office and they, the officers, had been deputed to search the premises. The shriek, i said, was my own. In a dream, the old man i mentioned was absent in the country. There was nothing to wash out, no stain of any kind, no blood spot, whatever. A tub had caught all. When i had made an end of these labours, it was four o'clock, still dark as midnight. As the bell sounded the hour, there came a knocking at the street door. I went down