“R-r-r-r-r-r-ring!” It went off shrilly at ten o’clock. Jack sat up and switched it off. “Good thing Dimmy gave us our rooms right away in this tower,” he thought to himself. “She would be waked too, if we slept anywhere near her. Mike, are you awake? Well, go to sleep again. I’m going to watch now, and I’ll wake you at twelve.”
Jack put on a dressing-gown, and sat down by the window that looked towards the tower of the Old House. It was a dark, cloudy night. Jack could not make out the tower, stare as he might.
“Well, I should see it if it had a light in it,” he thought.
An owl hooted in a distant wood. A moth fluttered in a corner near Jack’s head and made him jump. He yawned. After the first five minutes, it was rather boring to sit and look at dark nothingness.
He was glad when it was time to wake Mike. Mike stumbled sleepily out of bed, dragged on his dressing-gown, and went to sit by the window. Jack tumbled into bed thankfully and was asleep in a second.
Mike sat and stared sleepily at the tower of the Old House. He could just see it now, for the sky had cleared. The tower was dark. Mike felt his eyes closing and he jerked his head up. He got up to walk about, afraid that he might fall asleep in the chair.
When his two hours were almost up, he heard a sound in the bedroom. And a hand touched his shoulder. Mike almost jumped out of his skin. He hit out and struck something soft.
“Oh!” said Nora’s voice. “You hurt me, Mike! I’ve just come up to tell you it’s my turn to watch.”
“Well, what do you want to come creeping in like that for, and make me jump!” said Mike crossly. “I thought you were a smuggler or something!”
Nora giggled and took her seat by the window. “Get into bed,” she said. “It’s my turn now. Oooh, I do feel important!”