“Hush, Phrosy, please,” ordered Miss Alling. She, as well as Amy and Nell, had been awakened by the hubub, but she alone had had the presence of mind to light a lamp.
Now, with this illumination to sustain them, they gathered in Jessie’s room, Miss Alling doing her utmost to reassure and pacify the terrified Phrosy.
“Ah’m gwine git mah things on dis minute an’ go straight away f’om here,” protested the latter through chattering teeth. “Ain’t nobody gwine hold me here no longer.”
“Don’t be absurd, Phrosy,” said Aunt Emma, in a voice that showed her patience was deserting her. “You know very well you can’t leave here now. There are no boats running till morning, and I am certainly not going to get out the car and try the mountain road after dark. Do you intend to walk?”
“No’m, reckon Ah don’t,” returned Phrosy, somewhat impressed by this argument but still in the grip of panic. “Reckon dere ain’t no gittin’ away till to-morrow, but I sho intentions to take dat mo’nin’ boat. Ah wouldn’t stay in dis place any mo’e nights, no’m, not fo’ a million dollars, Ah wouldn’t.”
“Nobody is likely to offer you that much, anyway, Phrosy,” retorted Miss Alling, adding, as she turned to Jessie: “Do you know what all this is about? I haven’t heard anything.”
“Neither have I,” said Amy, standing beside the shivering Nell. “I am afraid Nell and I missed the show.”
Jessie hesitated. It was evident that she was the only one besides the colored woman who had heard that agonized moan from the direction of the swamp. Subconsciously she had been expecting to hear it repeated, but no sound had greeted her strained attention. If she should tell them that Phrosy was not the only one to be frightened by that strange and eerie cry, would they not perhaps laugh at her, as they were now laughing at Phrosy?
Her hesitation was short-lived, however, for, besides the advisability of telling the truth at all times, she felt that she owed it to the groaning Phrosy to admit that there was something queer going on down by the swamp.
“I heard a noise,” she said.