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When he lowered his ar beyond the doorway, no man with an ax The chopper-of-doors was, after all, the unseen presence
THUNK!
Paul stepped over a shattered section of the door and went out into the hallway
The fuse box was in the kitchen pantry Carol engaged all the breaker switches, and the lights came on
There was no telephone That was virtually the only modern convenience the cabin lacked
"Do you think it’s chilly in here?" Carol asked
"A little"
"We have a bottled-gas furnace, but unless it’s really cold, the fireplace is nicer Let’s bring in soot to cut down a tree?"
Carol laughed "That won’t be necessary Coirl outside, to the rear of the cabin, where an open porch ended in steps leading down to a short rear yard The yard rass was knee-deep, and the meadow climbed up toward a wall of trees fifty yards away
When Carol saw that fa the dreahts last week In the nighth another house, then across asilvery flickered in the darkness behind her At the time, she had not realized that the ?" Jane asked
"Huh? Oh No Let’s get that firewood"
She led the girl down the porch steps and to the left, to where a woodshed was attached to the southwest corner of the cabin
Thunder ruun to fall yet
Carol keyed open the heavy-duty padlock on the woodshed, took it off the hasp, and slipped it in her jacket pocket There would be no need to replace it until they were ready to return to Harrisburg, nine or ten days froes Inside, Carol tugged on the chain-pull light, and a bare hundred-watt bulb revealed stacks of dry cordwood being protected fro froirl "If you fill it up four or five tih wood to last us until to the first scuttle-load into the cabin, Carol was at the chopping block, using an ax to split a short log into four sticks
"What’re you doing?" the girl asked, stopping well
out of the way and staring warily at the ax
"When I build a fire," Carol said, "I put kindling on the bottom, a layer of these splits on top of that, and then the full logs to crown it off It never fails to buirl scowled "That ax looks awful sharp"
"Has to be"
"Are you sure it’s safe?"
"I’ve done it lots of times before, here and at hooing to accidentally a and started to split it into quarters
Jane went to the woodshed, giving the chopping block a wide berth When she returned, carrying her second scuttle-load to the house, she repeatedly glanced over her shoulder, frowning
Carol began quartering another log
THUNK!
Carrying his suitcase, Paul walked down the second-floor hall to the stairway, and the poltergeist ith him On both sides, doors opened and slaain, all by themselves and with such treh a e of cannon fire
As he descended the stairs, the chandelier at the top of the well began describing wide circles on the end of its chain, stirred by a breeze that Paul could not feel or moved by a hand that had no substance
On the first floor, paintings were flung off walls as he passed by Chairs toppled over The living roos In the kitchen, the overhead utensil rack shook; pots and pans and ladles banged against one another
By the tie, he knew he didn’t have to bother taking the entire suitcase to theinto the cabin with just a gun and the clothes on his back, for if nothing had been wrong, he would have looked like an idiot, and he would have done Jane a grave injustice But now, because of the call fro display put on by the poltergeist, be knew that everything rong; there was no chance whatsoever that he would reach the cabin only to discover that all was peaceful He would be walking into a nightmare of one kind or another No doubt about it So he opened the suitcase on the garage floor beside the car, took out the loaded revolver, and left the rest of his stuff behind
As he was backing out of the driveway, he saw Grace Mitowski’s blue Ford turn the corner, too fast It angled toward the curb in front of the house, scraping its sidewalls so badly that blue-white smoke rose from them
Grace was out of the car the instant it stopped She rushed to the Pontiac,faster than Paul had seen her er-side door and leaned in Her hair was in coshell white and spattered with blood
"Good God, Grace, what’s happened to you?"
"Where’s Carol?"
"She went to the cabin"
"Already?"
"This o"
Grace’s eyes contained a haunted expression "The girl ith her?"
"Yes"
She closed her eyes, and Paul could see she was on the edge of panic, trying to deal with it and calo after them"
"That’s where I’m headed"