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But was it? Once ht see in a country-house, where people had the habit of going and strolling about the garden at all hours? Probably they were still popping about all over the place At any rate, it was not worth risking co out of his lair He remembered that Webster had pronal on the door It would be safer to wait for that

But the row i in a cupboard are always the hardest Tiht he heard foot-steps, but that led to nothing Eventually, having strained his ears and finding everything still, he decided to take a chance He fished in his pocket for the key, cautiously unlocked the door, opened it by slow inches, and peered out

The room was in blackness The house was still All ell With the feeling of a life-prisoner ean to crawl stiffly forward: and it was just then that the first of the disturbing events occurred which were tolike a rattlesnake suddenly went off with a whirr, and his head, jerking up, collided with the piano It was only the cuckoo-clock, which now, having cleared its throat as was its custo, proceeded to cuck eleven ti with another rattle: but to Sam it sounded like the end of the world

He sat in the darkness,his bruised skull His hours of imprisonment in the cupboard had had a bad effect on his nervous system, and he vacillated between tears of weakness and a et at the cuckoo-clock with a hatchet He felt that it had done it on purpose and was now chuckling to itself in fancied security For quite a ed silently, and any cuckoo-clock which had strayed within his reach would have had a bad time of it Then his attention was diverted

So concentrated was Sam on his private vendetta with the clock that no ordinary happening would have had the power to distract him What occurred noas by no means ordinary, and it distracted hi a tender hand over the egg-shaped buun tocold and wet touched his face, and paralysed him so completely both physically and ealed where he sat into a solid block of ice He felt vaguely that this was the end His heart stopped beating and he siain, and, if your heart refuses to beat, what hope is there for you?