Grandmother calmly threw the quilts off her, stepped out of bed, and began to dress herself.
"Strike a light, Madeleine," she said.
"What are you going to do, grandmother?"
"Dress myself and examine the premises."
Urr-rr-rr-r-r-r-r—"Ha! ha! ha!" sounded once more the demoniac noise and laughter.
The matchbox nearly dropped from my shaking hands, but I struck the light.
The sudden flash awoke Alice just as another sonorous roll of the ball, and fall of the pins, and peal of demon laughter, sounded hollowly around us.
"Heaven and earth! what is that?" she exclaimed, starting up.
"What do you think it is, Alice?" said I.
"My Lord! my Lord!—it is the phantoms of the murderer and the murdered playing over again their last game!" cried the girl, in an agony of terror.