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I noticed that Boggs's door was closed and when I listened in the hallway, i heard no sound coht for everyone, I thought with a shrug and prepared a hot bath for ht I would read a little before going to sleep I had just opened rounds outside ht my attention

Rising slowly, I went to theand gazed out at the shtly and the flow of that light on the grounds hat I had seen As I stood looking out theI saw figures silhouetted behind the curtains Then, they disappeared I opened ht ht I could distinctly hear what sounded like the kind of music you heard on a carousel It was low, almost a tinkle

No one lives there, everyone had insisted, alry because I had asked Who was that, then?

I was tired of the lances and the whispers I didn't knohat I was risking exactly, but I kneouldn't be able to fall asleep wondering Except for the rounds, the house was still very quiet Even the creaks and groans in the walls and floor seemed to have stopped I reached for my robe and shoved host of Sir Godfrey Rogers's h this house, I tiptoed down the hall to the back door and slipped out

The night air was cooler than I had expected I e in the darkness, I felt I could observe without being discovered I waited and watched, but saw no one It looked safe for e I walked slowly, gazing around The e I stopped about h the shadows behind me, but I saw no one After a e in front of the cottage Someone moved behind the curtain, hesitated and then disappeared My heart had stopped and started and noas pounding under my chest like a jackhammer

I crouched and inched forward to theafter I had checked the grounds behind and around me once more Slowly, al inside ht my eye up to the corner of theand peered into the room

I had seen the sht I noticed that there were more dolls, and the dolls I had seen before had beenas a sat me

I realized thefroe I retreated and then, keeping to the shadows, e to the other side Once again, I looked around before going forward and was confident there was no one else out there waiting to pounce

The hedges on this side were soe so I had to step very slowly in order not to catch ain, slowly lifting ure in the bed and another, larger figure sitting on the edge Iin the curtains

People often say that when they are frightened by so, their blood turns cold It is as if ice cubes had for air crawled into your veins, chilling your blood so that when it reaches your heart, your heart feels like it has been coated with thin layers of frost I understood that description now It was happening to me

It wasa children's book in his hands He earing a velvet robe over his pajas and squirrels and rabbits e on a fairly large round red lollipop Her eyes ide as if she was five years old and hearing the htstand a music box played

The rooirl There was pink and white wallpaper filled with cartoon characters, more dolls on shelves, a s All the pictures on the wallsn ante from storybooks and children's movies The vanity table had a small brush and comb on it as well as some little bottles of perfume

The as opened slightly so if I loweredsaid

Great-uncle Richard's voice rose and fell with exaggeration as he read the story of a little duck who had wandered into the woods too far fro desperately to find her way home

"Her little quack quack echoed in the darkness around her," he read, "and she fluttered her feathers and ran faster, not knowing she was going in the wrong direction Suddenly, she heard an owl and she stopped to look up