"But in this forsaken place, in the middle of the night?" cried Laura, beginning to shiver as though she were cold. "It—it can't be, Billie!"
"Sh-h," said Billie again. "Listen!"
The purring sound was coming closer, seemed almost in the house, it was so near—Then came an awful thought to Billie. Could it really be in the house? Was it possible that those awful stories about ghosts were true?
But no, the noise was passing on, getting softer, softer, dying off in the distance.
"It—it must have been a machine," said Laura, beginning to laugh hysterically. "Vi, what did you go and wake me up in the middle of the night for just to hear an automobile? I was having such a lovely sleep."
"But I'm not so sure it was a motor car," insisted Violet stubbornly, the spell of the dream still upon her. "It didn't sound like it."
"But it couldn't have been anything else," said Billie, trembling a little with the reaction. "We heard it coming down the road, heard it pass the house, and go on. It simply must have been a machine."
"Oh, all right," said Violet, adding with a little sigh: "Well, I guess none of us will sleep any more to-night. I'm not even going to try."
"Well, I am," said Billie, leaning back and closing her eyes, yet knowing that she was as wide awake as she had ever been in her life. "I don't see any use in lying here and listening for things. Good night once more, girls—I'm off."
"Meaning you're crazy?" asked Laura, to which Billie made no reply.